


Black Sheets

by colloportusspell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anxiety, Awkward Flirting, Detention, Drama, Duelling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fights, First Love, First Time, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Jealousy, Lemon, Potions Class, Reader-Insert, Romance, Sexual Content, Slow Burn, Smut, Teacher-Student Relationship, Teen Romance, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2018-10-31 21:20:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 45,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10907688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colloportusspell/pseuds/colloportusspell
Summary: Professor Snape: the teacher everyone tried to avoid. The teacher that made almost every student look down in fear. The teacher that made the butterflies go to war in your stomach. A relationship between a student and a professor is off limits at Hogwarts and would result in being thrown out. You knew that these feelings towards your potions master weren't answered, but what is wrong with dreaming and trying your best? As long as no one found out.My official accounts:Instagram: @maja_gravesTwitter: @maja_graves





	1. Professor Snape

**Author's Note:**

> Y/N = Your name  
> Y/L/N = Your last name

The worst thing that could possibly happen in that very moment happened. The room had been filled with thick stinking black smoke from your enormous mistake. You swore and looked down to your feet. You couldn’t think of anything that could be worse than fucking up in a potions class.

“Miss Y/L/N.” said a stern but familiar voice. Professor Snape. You didn’t have the courage to look up and face your professor, not after this shame. Chattering from some of your classmates could be heard quietly from behind the wall of smoke that separated you from them. You, the only one that couldn’t make this simple potion, the disappointment of your house, the disappointment of Professor Snape. You could feel the presence of your professor who stood only a few feet away from you. His dark presence that put fear in every student that passed by, that made everyone put their eyes on the ground, everyone except you. You had tried to suppress your silly crush on professor snape for over a year now. When everyone else was repulsed by the cloaked man you were drawn to him. Drawn to the way he walked, talked and looked. To the way his black hair framed his face and how his black eyes could pierce your soul with one look. The classroom stood almost completely silent in anticipation over what would happen next; would the professor return to class? Would he give you detention? Would he scold you until you were nothing more than a smudge on the floor? Silence. You closed your eyes. Time for the final verdict.

“10 points from Slytherin. And detention.” Said the voice everyone had been waiting for. Great, now you were officially the disappointment of you house. The professor turned around and walked away and as you heard his footsteps getting further away you opened you eyes and inspected the mess you had made on the bench in front of you. Luckily, nothing had melted which saved you any further embarrassment that would have come with being forced to tell your parents about this incident and asking for a new cauldron. You sighed and started to clean up with what felt like a thousand eyes observing your every move.

“Want some help?” A voice belonging to a hufflepuff girl said.

“Yes, thank you.” You said quietly with a nod to the girl. She gave you an understanding smile before she started helping you clean up. The smoke was almost completely gone now, but in a way you wished it was still there. Without the smoke everyone could see your red face from embaressment and with that knowledge your face only became redder. Cleaning up was an easy task with the help of both magic and the hufflepuff girl, but even though your mistake couldn’t be seen anymore, everyone knew. As the class ended you picked up your things and dragged your feet out of the classroom with Professor Snapes eyes on your back.

***

You sat by the Slytherin table picking at your dinner with a fork, your appetite was gone for the day after the mishap in potions class. Your friends beside you joked around and discussed the latest quidditch game and how worthless Wood from the Gryffindor team was until one of them turned their attention to you.

“Y/N made quite the scene today in potions. Forced Professor Snape to remove 10 points.” Said Pansy Parkinson. You sighed. That girl could never keep her mouth shut. The rest of the Slytherins around you looked at you in disbelief.

“It was a mistake Pansy, drop it.” You said bitterly.

“You’re making it very hard for us to win the house cup if you keep that behavior up. I can’t clean up all the mess people like you make.” You dropped you fork and stood up from the table. After all these years you had spent on Hogwarts you knew that taking a discussion with people like Pansy was worthless, so you decided to just walk away. You weren’t planning on eating anything more so you made your way away from the table without a word to the Slytherins around you.

“Good job Pansy.” You could hear some of the Slytherins say sarcastically. The corridor outside the great hall was empty; you were the first one to leave. You made your way to the common room and sat down in one of the sofas by the fire. The clock ticked and you gave it a look. Fifteen minutes until detention with Professor Snape. You slid downwards so that you layd down and almost took up the whole sofa with your tired body. Even if you somehow looked forward to detention with Snape, only to see and spend some time with him, you didn’t enjoy having to spend time with him during those circumstances. The clock ticked by and soon students started to drop in into the common room. You sat up and decided to go to the bathroom before you headed towards detention to prevent even the slightest possibility to embarrass yourself again in front of Professor Snape.

As you walked through the cold corridors you couldn’t stop thinking about what your punishment would be. You had heard rumors about the professor’s detentions and nothing of what you had heard sounded pleasant. When you arrived you knocked on the door with less confidence than you would have wanted. The door swung up and there stood Professor Snape in all his glory. You took a deep breath to calm yourself down as he met your eyes.

“Miss Y/L/N. Come in, you have loads to do.” He said while he turned his back towards you and walked into the room. You followed the cloaked man into the low lit room and watched him sit down by his desk. The door swung and shut itself behind you which made you jump. You could swear on Merlins beard there was a smile on Professor Snapes face for a second before it turned back to be as emotionless as always. You stood still before your professor’s desk and observed his movements as you felt the butterflies in your stomach starting to come to life.

“When you’re done starring, you can start scrubbing those cauldrons. By hand.” He said while pointing his finger to the other side of the room and your face turned bright red as you turned away towards the cauldrons. You hurried up and made you way to the cauldrons and started scrubbing. During the whole time you scrubbed the professor sat quietly by his desk and read what seemed to be a potions book. The room was completely silent for two straight hours except the sound of cauldrons getting cleaner and your unsteady breathing, which you couldn’t tell if it was caused by Snapes presence or the physical work. When the clock turned nine Professor Snape closed his book and looked your way.

“You’re finished. Try not to embarrass yourself again miss Y/L/N, it would save us both much time.” He said in his usual emotionless tone.

“Yes, sir.” You nodded as you stood up. The professor looked down and opened his book again as you walked past him. When you reached the door you stopped. This detention was not going to go to waste. You had to say something that would differentiate you from his other students and show him that he didn’t scare you.

“See you tomorrow, Professor.” You said before you walked out and closed the door behind you. Not the best line, but good enough to make yourself different from the other students without being obvious about your silly feelings for your professor. You took a deep breath. You could do this. Small steps. Maybe one day he would look at you with the feelings you looked at him with. Maybe one day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to the rebel that has always been there for me and the people who read this fic one time before but decided they should reread it just because I said I was redoing some things lol hiii


	2. Potions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really just rolling with this. I have no idea where exactly I wanna go or how this relationship will pan out (exept from what I've put in the tags)... so if you have something you think would fit well, comment! I need all the inspiration I can get <3

“How was detention last night?” asked one of your friends with a smug smile as you sat down for breakfast.

“Well, my arms hurt from scrubbing cauldrons by hand for two hours.” you said bitterly. You could barely lift your arms above the table from the pain the intense scrubbing had caused you. This could be a problem later today if it didn’t ease up until potions, you really didn’t want to mess anything up again.

“I feel sorry for you, Y/N. Snape has the reputation to be hard on students during detention no matter what they did, so don’t blame yourself.” another of the slytherins said with a reassuring smile. And you knew it was true. Snape’s detentions were one of the few things you were all warned about during your first year at Hogwarts, so you hadn’t really been surprised when he gave you the task. You continued trying to eat your breakfast with your sore arms when your mind drifted of in thoughts of Professor Snape. You thought about how your eyes had met, how he smiled when the door had made you jump even if it lasted only for a second, how his black hair framed his face when he looked down into his book… As you continued daydreaming you glanced up towards the teachers table, and there he sat. Professor Snape observed the great hall with his black eyes carefully as he slowly ate his breakfast. As the head of the Slytherin house he watched over the Slytherin table more than over the other tables, and as he did you met his eyes once more. You slightly panicked, but tried to stay as calm as possible. With a shy smile to your professor you turned away your face as it started to turn bright red. One of your friends noticed your red tone and started laughing.

“What happened to you?” he said with a laugh as others around you also noticed your colour.

“I’m still embarrassed over the detention, okay?” you said, which wasn’t a complete lie. Your friends looked at you with slight disbelief, but they didn’t push you for more information or teased you, they just continued laughing and the boy who sat beside you grabbed you and gave you a soft noogie before everyone continued eating their breakfast and discussing the latest gossip. When breakfast was done you and your friends walked out of the great hall and headed towards your first lesson of the day.

***

Next lesson: potions class. You took a deep breath to calm yourself down before you took your things and walked towards the classroom. You found concentrating on your breathing helped to stop your face turning red when you saw or thought about your professor. _Breathe in, breathe out_ , you thought as you walked into the classroom and sat down. Professor Snape stood big and intimidating in the front of the classroom as it was being filled with students. His eyes observed the students and you could see how they roamed over you with your peripheral vision. _Breathe in, breathe out._ The cloaked man slowly started to speak and the lesson had officially started. The class went surprisingly well until the very last moments. You had blended your potion perfectly but when you were about to add the most crucial part, the part that could literally blow up in your face, one of the Gryffindor boys bumped into you from behind. You dropped what was in your hands and it did, in fact, blow up in your face. You slowly turned around to the Gryffindor boy and starred him angrily in the eyes.

“Are you kidding me?!” you almost yelled in the boys face.

“Oh, I’m sorry Y/N.” he said with a worried look. You boiled with anger, that boy had made you mess up in potions. AGAIN. This time it was obvious it wasn’t at all your fault, or at least you thought.

“10 points from Gryffindor for sabotaging. 5 points from Slytherin for not being able to hold things.” Said the stern voice you knew so well and adored. You sighed but was glad that he hadn’t blamed everything on you, or that he had given you detention. You turned around and looked at your professor. As soon as you laid your eyes on him your thoughts drifted just the slightest, but it was enough to make you blush again. _Breathe in, breathe out._ You could see that your professor noticed you colour change and he stayed with his eyes on you as he spoke.

“Something wrong, miss. Y/L/N?” your heart skipped a beat and your face became even redder, if that was even possible.

“N-no, Professor.” you stuttered before the embarrassment became too much. You had to get away from him so you quickly grabbed your things and stormed out of the classroom and hurried down the hall even though class wasn’t over. After about 5 seconds you could hear Snapes voice, raised enough for you to hear, coming from the potions classroom.

“Y/L/N. Detention.” you gave yourself a facepalm as you continued down the hall. You decided to skip the last lesson of the day, which was muggle studies, only to lay face down in your bed feeling sorry for yourself. You were fine with your decision until you realised that skipping class also mostly ended in detention, but when you realised this it was already too late. The anxiety washed over you and for a while, you only wanted to hide under your blanket and cry in frustration. You turned over and sat up in your bed, cursing over how stupid you could be and thinking about what you should do next. You couldn’t just sit here, it would only make you feel worse and that didn’t benefit anyone. Dinner didn’t sound very attractive at the moment, it would only result in more embarrassment when you met Professor Snape and your classmates, so you decided to go somewhere you knew people wouldn’t look, and where you could get a good chat at the same time.

You jumped out of bed and headed out. You crossed your fingers that you wouldn’t run into a teacher or someone you knew as you moved, closer to the great hall than you had wished. Your steps echoed between the walls and you could suddenly hear steps from around a corner up ahead. You hurried and hid in the closest room you could find, which happened to be a cleaning cupboard, and waited for the steps to pass by and disappear. You breathed out in relief and waited a bit for the coast to be clear before you dared to walk out and continuing heading towards your goal. You had only been there once before during your time at Hogwarts, but your experience hadn’t been as bad as many said theirs had been. You thought many exaggerated their stories for attention, she wasn’t that bad. You ran up the stairs and soon you stood outside your goal: Myrtle’s bathroom.


	3. Unicorn

You opened the door and stepped inside.

“Myrtle?” you tried as you carefully walked into the bathroom. You looked around and spotted the dead girl not far away from you. The ghost looked at you with slight annoyance from one of the open stalls.

“Hi, how are you today?” you continued.

“Dead.” she answered, still annoyed over your presence. You sighed and sat down on the floor without getting too close to the girl.

“Sorry, to bother you, Myrtle. I just needed to get away.” you said and Myrtles face turned from annoyance to understanding. She nodded. She understood the feeling.

“Life here is so.. complicated, you know? I don’t really know how to behave anymore.” you continued and Myrtle gave out a screeching laugh.

“Is this maybe.. about a boy?” she giggled.

“Yeah, I guess.” you sighed. If it just had been any other boy this would have been easier. You could have acted on your feelings and told him, or you could have quietly fangirled in the corner and just enjoyed seeing him from a distance. Your current situation was different. Severus Snape wasn’t any other boy. He was your teacher and the head of your house. He was someone you couldn’t have, didn’t matter how much you wanted him. He was someone that wouldn’t even look at you with anything romantic in mind. He was someone that would never touch you if he wasn’t forced to. The thoughts of how pathetic your feelings for your teacher was made you tear up.

“Oooh! now, now. At least you’re not dead, right?” Myrtle said as she saw your eyes getting glossy. You looked at her and felt bad over how you sat here and complained while she was stuck in time, alone in this bathroom. But honestly, she didn’t really seem bothered by being alone most of the time. If she really wanted company she could talk to one of the other ghosts or just… become friendlier. You laid down on the cold floor and looked up in the decorated ceiling while you continued talking to Myrtle about your feelings and struggles, careful not to mention anything that could reveal the true identity of your target of affection. Myrtle actually listened at what you had to say, only with occasional passive aggressive outburst, most likely caused by her feelings around her own early death. After you had gotten most of the enormous amount of thoughts and problems you had of your chest you looked at the clock. Shit. Detention started 10 minutes ago. You quickly stood up and brushed the dust of your skirt.

“I have to get to detention, see you later Myrtle. It was nice talking to you.” you smiled as you almost ran to the door. You gave Myrtle a quick wave as you walked out of the bathroom and then rushed through the hallways. As you hurried through the school you passed some of your friends that shouted after you.

“Ey, Y/N! Where have you been?” you heard from behind you, but you didn’t answer. You didn’t have time to answer. You actually didn’t want to answer.You just ran. You arrived at Snape’s office 15 minutes too late and you were ashamed as you knocked on the door. No answer. You knocked again. Silense. You looked around you, the halls were empty and you couldn’t hear any sign of life. You knocked for the third time and waited. Still no answer.

“Rude.” you muttered.

“Says you.” a bitter voice said from behind you and you froze. Oh Merlin you were doomed. You slowly turned around and faced the owner of the voice. The cloaked man stood unusually close and it made your already fast heartbeat to rise until it felt like your heart was about to jump out from your body. Your face, as always, was red by the sight of your professor but this time you didn’t dare to try and hide it. You were already in trouble. The man observed your red face before he locked his eyes in yours. _Breathe in, breathe out._

“I should take 10 points from Slytherin for this behaviour.” he said and you stood quiet for a awhile before you raised your eyebrows and spoke.

“...then why don’t you?” you asked quietly, but your professor didn’t answer. The cloaked man grabbed your arm and now you were positive you were on the brink of having a heart attack. He gave you a push to the side and then let go. He opened the door and walked in as you stood there outside, still shocked over that he had touched you. _Breathe in, breathe out._

“Y/L/N.” the professor said and you could hear he was annoyed so you turned around and hurried into the room. The man swung his wand and the door shut behind you. Your professor sat down at his desk and gave you today’s task, without continuing on the conversation that he had started in the corridor.

“You will clean the storage. And: Don’t. Break. Anything.” he said with angry eyes as he slowly looked up at you. Chills went down your spine, you didn’t enjoy seeing Professor Snape angry. To be completely honest you didn’t know why he was angry. Annoyed sure, but being angry was a bit of an overreaction, you thought. You walked over to the storage and looked inside. This was going to be a long night.

You stood on the ladder and cleaned the dust of the top shelf as you noticed some bottles you had never seen before. Your stretched out your arm and grabbed one of them. The bottle contained a thick silvery substance and it was missing the tag that all the other ingredients in the storage had on them.

“Professor Snape?” you called out.

“Yes, miss Y/L/N?” Snape answered with his usual bitter voice.

“What is this?” you asked loud enough for him to hear your question from the other room.

“How about you read the tag?” he said with annoyance.

“It doesn’t have one.” you could hear how the professor stood up before he quickly walked into the storage with his wand at ready. With a flick of it your hand was empty and the bottle flew into Snapes.

“You’re finished for today. Detention tomorrow aswell for being late and skipping class.” he said, but you felt like you had the advantage now.

“Does the bottle contain what I think it does?” you asked.

“Out.” he said and nodded towards the door.

“So that’s a yes. You know you should really try to hide forbidden ingredients better, professor.” you said with a smug smile as you climbed down the ladder. You felt your confidence getting stronger as you laid your eyes on the professor. The cloaked man looked at you with a hint of an expression on his face you had never seen before. Surprise. His eyes didn’t reflect his ordinary superiority. You broke eye contact and walked out of the storage and headed to the door. _Breathe in, Breathe out._ Before you walked out you stopped and turned to your professor that had slowly followed you.

“I won’t tell anyone.” you said to him before you opened the door and walked out. When you had walked a bit the panic kicked in. You had just been the bravest you had ever been in the presence of Snape. You had talked to him. He had looked at you as something else than an ordinary student. You knew one of his secrets and he knew that you did. But why the hell did Snape have bottles containing Unicorn blood? You sighed as you continued walking towards the common room. You stopped in the middle of a step and sneezed. The sneeze echoed in the hallway and you wondered how much dust there had been in that storage.


	4. Pepperup

You woke up feeling like crap. Your head ached and your nose were so stuffed you almost suspected that one of your friends had put something up your nostrils while you slept, but no. Slowly, you crawled out of bed. You went to the bathroom and blew your nose but without any success. Still just as stuffed. Great.  Without caring to put on any casual clothing, you walked out to the common room in your pyjamas. You were in no shape to go to class today. As you entered the common room the muddy light that seeped through the windows made your eyes squint and your head to ache even more. You stopped in the middle of a step when you realised what you had to do if you would be allowed to miss classes today. You had to go tell the head of your house that you were sick. Shit. With a sigh and a tiny prayer you made your way towards Snape's office without thinking about the looks you got from your fellow students as you passed them. You placed three quiet and insecure knocks on the door. Only a few seconds passed before the door flew open to reveal a very annoyed man. You could swore that his face showed shock for a split second when he saw you, but you couldn’t figure out why until he closed his eyes and asked:

“Y/N. Y/L/N. What. Are. You. Wearing?” He said and opened his eyes just to glare at you. You realised that you were still wearing your pyjamas and that you had forgot to change before you went to see your professor. Your face turned as red as humanly possible and you directly tilted your head downwards to hide it.

“I was planning to go back to bed, sir. I feel too sick to go to class today.” You whispered. A sigh could be heard from your professor.

“Go back to your dorm. I will notify your teachers.” The man said bitterly before he shut the door and left you standing in the hallway with surprise written all over your face. That was the first time you had ever heard Snape let anyone skip classes for the day due to sickness without a long discussion or examination. You looked at your pyjamas. The light pink fabric had a slight glow in the light from the candles that hung on the walls. Maybe he let you off the hook so easily because he liked them. Or maybe he was just tired of you. You tried to shrug of the thoughts of Snape and went back to your dorm and to your, still warm, bed. With slow movements you were once again tucked in under the sheets and it didn’t take long before you drifted back into your dreams.

*** 

You woke up around lunchtime feeling a tiny bit better. You sat up on the side of your bed for a couple of minutes before you decided to get dressed and later eat something when the lunch was served in the great hall. You didn’t feel like dressing in your school uniform since you weren’t attending classes, so black jeans and a t-shirt it was. At the last minute, you grabbed your slytherin cloak to blend in a bit more with the crowd. To have everyone you passed look at you when you felt like this was not something you strived for. You walked into the great hall and sat down at your usual place with your friends at the Slytherin table. They asked how you were feeling and your answer was simple: like shit. You weren’t sick often so you didn’t really know how to handle it more than just rest and eat. Some of your fellow Slytherins gave you supportive words, some gloated in your misery and some were puzzled over the fact that Snape had let you skip classes, but to be honest so were you. You were about to start eating your lunch when an owl flew through the hall and landed before you. The owl carried a small package with your name on it and you wondered who in the world had sent you a package. As soon as the owl had dropped off the package it flew once again through the great hall before it disappeared through one of the open windows. You quickly opened the package with curiosity to find an opaque bottle inside with a tiny note that said “Drink.” in bold black letters. You were hesitant to do as the note said in suspicion that one of your friends was playing with you, but when you looked around all of them seemed genuinely curious over the package.

“Come on! Drink it!” one of them said. You took a deep breath before you put the bottle to your lips with the thought that madam Pomfrey were a very good healer if the bottle ended up containing something unpleasant. The liquid ran down your throat and you could feel heat spreading through your body. The heat builded up and you could feel a pressure building up inside your head before steam burst out of your ears. Your friends burst out in laughter and your face turned red, which at this point had become something daily for you.

“I bet that was a Pepperup Potion. Someone wants you back on your feet quickly.” said one of your friends with a smile. The other Slytherins laughed and some whistled over what seemed like a secret admirer. You were confused over who had sent this and why, because you hadn’t told anyone you were sick until only a few moments ago. Your head slowly turned towards the teachers table as you realised that you had told one person, and one person only. Severus Snape. Your eyes met for a second before he turned away to talk to one of the teachers beside him. You didn’t imagine this. There was only one that could have sent the Pepperup Potion and it made sense. He was the potions master, he had easy access to all potions in the storage and if that were empty he could easily make one in no time. He were the only one who had known long enough to set this up. Of course it could be another teacher if he had indeed notified them and told them you were sick, but what you had heard he usually only said that a student was going to be absent without mentioning the reason. And what other teacher would send this without writing it was from them? Snape was the only logical answer. Your heart felt like it was going to explode. To not raise any suspicion among your friends you looked back down and started eating. You ate your lunch with a slight struggle, the stuffed nose made it hard to eat and breathe at the same time but you could already feel the potion having effect. Your headache were almost completely gone and you could feel how you got your energy back, unfortunately smoke were going to come out your ears a few times during the next hours. Your friends waited patiently for you to eat up before they stood up and left the great hall with you. Before you took the step out of the big doors you looked back to see him. Your eyes were met by the Professors for a second before he once again turned them away and you sighed with a small smile. At least now you knew he cared about you.


	5. Thank you

The Pepperup potion had helped and you were well enough to go to class the next day. Unfortunately, the night hadn’t resulted in any sleep. Instead of sleeping, you were consumed by thoughts of your cloaked professor. You couldn’t believe that he, of all people, would care enough to do something like that. You started to doubt your assumptions that it had been the professor that sent the Pepperup potion, but you couldn’t figure out who else it could have been. Your thoughts jumped from conclusion to conclusion, from one possibility to another, from one impossibility to another. You didn’t know what to think. Nothing made sense anymore. At one point you even suspected a boy in Gryffindor and that was when you knew you had to stop overthinking the situation. The most logical answer in your mind was Snape, but you couldn’t figure out _why_ he would do such a thing. He must care about you, right? But in what way? Or was it more that he felt like it was his duty as the head of your house to take care of you? Or was it gratitude that you hadn’t told anyone about… no. It hadn’t gone long enough time for it to be that. You could still go to Dumbledore and tell him how Professor Snape hid Unicorn blood in the storage. Maybe it was to make sure you wouldn’t tell anyone? But if it was like that, why hadn’t he given you the potion in person? Or at least write on the note that it was from him. You couldn’t figure this out, and you definitely couldn’t ask him about it. It would be beyond embarrassing for the both of you both if it was him who sent the potion and if it hadn’t. You weren’t even sure he was allowed to give students potions. Madam Pomfrey were the only one you were sure was allowed, and to be honest you could have gone to her and asked for some Pepperup potion yesterday morning but what you had heard the one she used resulted with long and nasty side effects. The one you had received had only given you two or three occasions where steam came out of your ears. Not too bad considering some had an almost constant stream of steam out of their ears for hours. You struggled in class, almost falling asleep three times during transfiguration and you ended up getting another 10 points taken away from Slytherin. As the day went on you only felt more and more tired which scared you a little. You could not be like this when it was time for the most important class of them all: Potions. You looked at you schedule, 30 minutes until potions class. Desperately, you tried to come up with a way to bring some energy into your system. You thought you might be able to run to Hogsmede to get something with caffeine from one of the pubs and then run back in time for class but you quickly realised that was both very optimistic and forbidden during weekdays. In a slight panic you started to wander through the halls in search for something that would give you energy. As you walked into the common room you saw some of the muggleborns sitting in the corner chatting and you knew at least one of them had to have energy drinks. You quickly walked up to them and gave them the friendliest smile you could produce at this state.

“Hi, do any of you have any energy drinks? I desperately need it before I walk into Potions. I don’t want to force Snape to take away points because I couldn’t keep my eyes open.” You said desperately.

“Haha, sure, I have some. Wait here.” one of the girls said before she left with an understanding smile. You had to give Slytherins that, pretty willing to help their own. You sat down beside the remaining Slytherins and they gladly filled you in on the latest gossip. At one point Snape was mentioned and, of course, one of them had to ask:

“Weren’t you the one that got detention with Snape several times in a row?”

“Yeah.. even more reason for me to not fall asleep during his class.” You said with slight bitterness. The muggleborns nodded with understanding just as the one that had the energy drinks came back.

“Here you go. No points from Slytherin, ok?” She said with a stern voice and raised eyebrows.

“Promise.” You said with a tired smile as you were given the drink.

“See you later.” You said with a wave before you stood up and left. The can opened with a satisfying sound and you quickly put the can to your mouth and drank the fizzling liquid inside. You drank as you slowly walked towards the classroom and made sure you finished the drink and threw it away before you came too close to the classroom. You walked into the room with the other students but there were no cloaked professor at his normal spot at the from of the classroom. He usually stayed between classes if there weren’t long breaks in between, but not today. You sat down and patiently waited while your classmates walked around and chatted. Eventually a black figure rushed into the room with the door loudly being shut behind it. The figure continued forward until it reached the front of the classroom. With a graceful turn the professor’s face looked over the class and everyone quietly took their seats. You observed the professor as he opened his mouth to speak and you couldn’t help but think about what his lips would feel like. As you caught yourself thinking such thoughts you gave yourself a slap on the cheek without thinking about your actions. Everyone's heads turned your way and as far as you could see all had raised eyebrows and surprise written over their faces. Even Snape. But as usual, Snape’s surprised expression only lasted for a second before it turned into his usual, stone cold expression.

“Something wrong, miss Y/L/N?” he asked with a sigh and you could feel your face heating up, but not enough to glow red as it otherwise did when Severus Snape spoke to you.

“Not anymore, Professor. Sorry for interrupting.” You answered and looked down to get away from facing his black eyes. The cloaked man didn’t take the conversation any further but started his class as planned. Luckily you managed to both stay awake and actually do good during class. As always, you had some moments where you forgot what you were doing as you caught a glimpse of your professor walking by or standing in the front of the classroom, but this time you could quickly continue what you were doing without spending five minutes trying to figure out where you had been. The class went by fast and you had, as promised, not done anything that had caused your house to loose points. You were still confused over the Pepperup potion and as the classroom were being emptied you considered to stay behind and confront him. As you thought about it seemed like a good way to give your mind some rest but at the same tíme it was the worst idea you had ever had. You were slow to pick up your things due to the fact that you couldn’t decide what to do. Every movement became extremely slow and when you had picked up all your belongings and looked up the classroom were empty except from the professor and yourself. Your heart started racing and you knew you had to make the decision now. Either you said something or you walked out without a word. You looked up at your professor and he was closely watching you. With a deep breath you opened your mouth.

“Professor I have a question. What is the side effects of the Pepperup potion madam Pomfrey uses?”

“Steam out of the drinker’s ears for several hours after consumption.” He answered and you could see he was slightly tilting his head. You took that as a small sign of interest.

“And if you were to make it?” you asked and the room were silent longer than you had expected.

“Less of the same.” He eventually said shortly and at that moment you knew that it was him who had given you the potion. You couldn’t help but to smile.

“Thank you, Professor.” you said to you professor before you walked towards the door with a warm feeling filling your body.

***

The professor carefully observed his student walk out of his classroom and he was soon alone in the low lit room. He reflected over her words. She knew what he had done, but she weren’t afraid or disgusted over his help. It made him… relieved? He clenched his jaw in frustration. What on earth was he doing?

***


	6. Eat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little longer chapter this time! ENJOY

Everything after your talk with Snape went by with a serious struggle. You couldn’t concentrate on anything except from the professor and your mates noticed that something was up.

“Y/N… Are you okay?” One of your fellow Slytherins asked. You looked up at your friend with weary eyes and nodded with what everyone could see was slight panic. Your entire body felt warm and you had almost a tingling feeling crawling over your skin. Instead of becoming dreamy and sighing with happiness like girls in fiction did, you had become a mess of lust. Severus Snape filled every corner of your consciousness and you almost felt like you were going insane. The desperate attempts of hiding these feelings made you look like you were in extreme agony and the people around you were starting to get really worried over your mental health. Some of them started asking each other what to do and what possibly could be the cause. You heard one of them say that they hadn’t seen you leaving the potions classroom with everyone else and now you actually panicked. If they asked you about Snape it would be obvious this had to do with him. You were in no shape of delivering a convincing lie so you just tried to stay quiet and ignore what they were saying. Your friends and yourself had parked in one of the halls as you waited for the dinner to begin, possibly because they didn’t want everyone to stare at the mess you had become. The Slytherins continued to discuss what to do when a couple of Hufflepuffs walked by and saw you and heard the worry in the Slytherins voices. One of the Hufflepuff girls, that you often sat beside at potions stopped and looked at you.

“Hey, Y/N. How are you feeling?” She asked.

“Like I am going to explode.” The girl showed a look of worry and she looked over at the other Slytherins around you.

“Maybe we should take her to madam Pomfrey?” She asked the slytherins and they shook their heads in response.

“We don’t think it’s like that. She just.. broke.” One said and the Hufflepuff girl nodded in understanding.

“I know something that might help. Can I borrow her? We’ll take good care of her.” She smiled and the Slytherins all looked at her with gratefulness.

“Sure. Just give her back when you are done.” One of your friends said with a small smile before she gave you a hug and lead you to the Hufflepuff girl. In a way you were happy to get away from the Slytherins. You loved them, they were your family, but they were so extremely good at finding out the truth without you even saying anything and that was not an option during the circumstances. The Hufflepuffs were always nice to you and they didn’t pry, so going with them for the moment felt good. You gave out a relieved sigh as you walked with the Hufflepuffs.

“Go eat, we’ll come later.” The girl said to the other hufflepuffs and they did as she said. You watched them walk into the great hall but you couldn’t stop your eyes from continuing forward to the teachers table. You saw Severus Snape sitting and talking to the teachers around him and your mind once again became a lustful mess. You wanted him to see you, to touch you, to kiss you, to love you. Just as you started thinking such thoughts his face turned towards the open doors and your eyes met. You were almost positive that your face had indeed exploded for a second but you were taken out of the moment when the Hufflepuff girl grabbed your arm and dragged you away.

“Snape, huh?” She said and you became terrified. This was exactly what you were afraid of.

“No shame, Y/N. Your secret's safe.” She smiled.

“Hannah, you can’t tell anyone, it’s not what you think, I’m just being silly, if it came out it wou..” You tried before she cut you off.

“I said your secret is safe. I won’t tell anyone.” she assured and you didn’t know if you could relax, but you trusted her. The girl led you through corridor after corridor until you arrived to a small doorless room at the end of the hall with couches. You couldn’t say you had ever seen this room before and it didn’t have any special house colours so it wasn’t because it belonged to a different house.

“No one except some hufflepuffs come here. You can say it is pretty forgotten.” She smiled and sat down in one of the couches. You followed her lead and sat down beside her.

“Now, tell me everything.” you looked at her in shock.

“Come on! Better to get it out than bottle it up. I’m good at keeping secrets, and I already know the most crucial part.” Hannah said with a gentle smile and you figured she was right.

“Don't laugh okay? He is very...special. You know?” You started.

“Like he seems so emotionless but he’s actually pretty caring. And he’s so intelligent, observant, good with comebacks, powerful and you know… handsome.” You blushed as you spoke. Words like these had never come out of your mouth before. Hannah looked carefully at you, and it showed that she was really processing what you were saying. She cared and tried to the fullest to understand the chaotic feelings of yours.

“He is more caring towards Slytherins than the other houses I guess…” you added. You had decided that the whole Pepperup potion situation was going to stay between you and the professor.

“Sounds… reasonable. Love isn’t logical and you don’t pick who you fall for.” You nodded.

“But more importantly: was it Snape that made you all shaky and speechless before?” The Hufflepuff girl continued with a curious look on her face.

“Well… yeah sort of.”

“Out with it.”

“I get… inappropriate thoughts sometimes and… talking to the professor does not help.”

“Inappropriate thoughts?! Talking to him?! Are you thinking of having sex with him? You naughty girl!” She giggled and you became extremely embarrassed. Now you weren’t sure it had been a good idea of sharing this.

“I’m just messing with you, honey. You’re a teenager. Hormones and all that! We all have thoughts like that.” She said and leaned towards you and gave you a big hug. You sighed in relief, at least she didn’t think you were messed up because you liked the cloaked man. Just as she let go of you you could hear footsteps echo. Hannah looked towards the sound with surprise.

“What?... Everyone that knows about this place should be in the great hall.” She almost whispered. But you didn’t need to wonder who it was for long before that very familiar body passed the corner and headed your way.

“Speaking of the devil.” Hannah smiled. The cloaked man walked slowly but gracefully into the room and looked at the two girls in front of him.

“Miss Abbott. Miss Y/L/N. Why are you not in the great hall, dining?” He asked coldly.

“Oh we are so sorry professor! We must have forgotten the time.” The Hufflepuff said to the professor and you could see that he saw right through the lie but, to your surprise, he let it slide.

“Very well. Miss Abbott, go dine with your house. I need a moment with my house student.” He said and both you and Hannah stared at him with surprise. You completely froze in panic, what on earth did he want with you? Scold you? Take points from Slytherin? Your heart beat faster that what could possibly be healthy.

“Y-yes sir.” Hannah said before she left you with the professor. Before she disappeared she gave you a wink out of sight from the professor and that made your panic even worse. You looked up at the professor and you saw how he scanned you up and down.

“You should really learn to control your thoughts sometimes, Y/L/N.” He said and you thought you could see a slight pull on the corner of his mouth as he was about to smile. You tried to process what he was talking about and your eyes widened when you remembered what you had thought when you saw him in the great hall only a few moments ago. You opened your mouth as to say something but you didn’t know what to say. You knew your professor was skilled in Legilimens and Occlumency so that he actually heard or.. seen what you had thought made something break inside you. You had no excuse, nothing you could say to help you out of this situation.

“Cute.” The cloaked man said with a tone you couldn’t interpret. For all you know it could be disgust, maliciousness, fondness… The professor took a step to the side and nodded to the hallway.

“Walk.” You did as you were told. He followed you out the room and told you exactly where you were supposed to go next as soon as you came across a parting of the hallway you were currently walking in. He lead you to the great hall but before you reached the big doors he told you to stop.

“I have my eyes on you. At least try to control your thoughts.” He said before he gave you a light push towards the doors.

“Now eat.”


	7. Brain

When you woke up the next morning you felt sick to your stomach. You had barely gotten any sleep and your body felt so weak that you couldn’t even lift your legs. You knew the interaction with Snape last night was the reason for this and you sighed in frustration. Why couldn’t your brain have chosen someone else to fall for? Preferably a student that you actually had a chance to get. But no, your brain had decided to fall for the most unavailable man on the planet and the worst part was that he now knew. He knew you wanted every inch of him. A small groan came out of your mouth as you thought about him and you managed to turn over to your stomach. With your face down in the pillow you screamed in frustration over the embarrassment you were soon forced to endure during class. Maybe you could lay here all day and maybe no one would notice. You liked the thought but your plan was cut short when one of your roommates came rushing and shoved you out of the bed with a very cheerful laughter. After a hard landing on the cold floor you looked up at her with irritated eyes.

“GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE!” she yelled with a big smile on her face.

“Why in Merlin’s beard would you do that? That hurt like hell.” you said bitterly as you tried to crawl back up into your bed.

“Guess what?” she giggled.

“What? You have decided to break all my limbs was a good idea?” you said with more bitterness than you thought you had in your body.

“Come on it wasn’t that bad. You are so dramatic.” she rolled her eyes without removing that big smile from her face.

“Today's potions has been canceled! I love sleep-ins.” she said happily and sighed in relief as she walked over to her own bed and threw herself on top of the sheets.

“Why is it canceled?” you said, trying to hide your worry. The professor wouldn’t cancel his class if it wasn’t something important going on. The thought of him doing something dangerous made you anxious but you knew you had to hide it.

“Don’t know, they just said that it was canceled until further notice.” she shrugged her shoulders and you decided that more questions would only make her suspicious. The worry started bubbling and you couldn’t help but to imagine the worst case scenario. You hoped nothing had happened to him.

*** 

You walked into the great hall for dinner with your friends. As usual, your eyes made their way forwards to the teachers table but there were no Severus Snape there today either. Potions had been canceled for three days now and the professor hadn’t been seen by anyone. You had even taken the time to ask some of the ghosts about what they knew when you had passed them in the halls, but they had all given the same answer: ‘haven’t seen him’. You were starting to imagine all sorts of horrible things that could have happened; maybe a potion exploded and hurt him, or maybe he fell down the stairs, maybe someone had tried to assassinate him. He had been a death eater after all, at least according to the rumors, so he must have a lot of enemies. You got goosebumps just by thinking about it, so you decided to push it out of your thoughts and focus on the meal you were about to eat. However, Snape was not something you easily pushed out of your thoughts. The worry was still there but you managed to concentrate on the present moment. Your friends and the food. Friends and food. You tried to breathe in a steady rhythm, Hannah had said that it would help with the anxiety and worry. The dinner was, as always, amazing and you had started to appreciate it more now when you desperately concentrated on every single detail of it to block out the missing professor. The house-elves in the kitchen were extremely good at their job. When you finished eating, you and your friends left the great hall, but as you walked down the halls you started to feel a little nauseous.

“Hey guys, I’ll just take some fresh air. See you in the common room.” Your friends looked at you.

“Okay, see ya’.” You separated from your friends and walked without any goal on where you wanted to end up. The lonely walking made your thoughts roam and the nausea made the thoughts full of slight panic. You thought about the professor and what could have happened. You thought about how the professor knew how you felt about him. You thought about how he had disappeared right after he caught you thinking such things. You sighed as an angry tear fell down your cheek. Why would he just leave? How could you be so stupid to think inappropriate things about him when you knew he was a skilled legilimens? But that kind of magic still needed a wand to be used… at least for common people. Was he deliberately snooping in your thoughts? And if so, why? You had so many questions and no answers. The man made you crazy. You looked up at your surroundings and saw that you had basically gone in a circle. You continued walking down the hall, realising Snape's office were just a couple of meters in front of you. You looked at the wooden door, took a couple of more steps forward and noticed that the door stood ajar. Had someone broken into his office? You rushed forward and opened the door fully. Instead of being met with prying students or an empty room, you were met by the professor himself. He stood leaned over a table in the corner of the room, taking heavy breaths.

“Professor?” You said, taking some steps into the room. The cloaked man turned around to look at you and you could see he had some small scratches on his face.

“Are you alright? What happened?” You asked with worry as you hurried over to him. Just as you were about to touch his face you realised what you were doing and stopped in the middle of the movement. The professor looked at you in surprise.

“I’m sorry, I saw the door being open and thought someone might have… you know. Broken in.” You tried to explain. You felt guilty and embarrassed over how you had rushed in without thinking, but you still wondered where he had been the past few days.

“I suggest you leave, miss Y/L/N.” He said, cold as always. You clenched your jaw. You couldn’t leave without asking.

“Where have you been?” He tilted his head.

“Official Hogwarts business.” He answered and squinted at your question. You knew this was none of your business but you refused to back down, you had worried your ass off with the lack of information they gave you and you had to know what happened to him.

“What did that to you?” You pointed at his face.

“None of your concern, little girl.” He said coldly.

“Maybe not, but I care, okay?” You said, almost shouting. When you realised what you said you put you hand over your mouth as to make yourself quiet. You couldn’t say things like that as soon as he made you a bit annoyed, it would buy you a one way ticket away from Hogwarts.

“Girls your age never mean what they say.” He said angrily as he turned away from you.

“What? You think I don't actually care? Because I do.” You said with annoyance. As you finished he turned around and pushed you against the wall.

“You don’t know anything about me, Y/L/N.” He spat out as he held his hands pressed against the wall on either side of your head.

“I know enough.” You said. A part of you wanted to cry, but the stubborn part was bigger. He was so angry at you for saying that you cared, he refused to believe that someone did in fact care about him. You figured if you were going to be expelled you should at least try to earn to be thrown out, so you placed your hand on his cheek. When the professor didn’t move away from your touch you smiled.

“I care about what happened to you, but if you want me to leave I will.” You said and removed your hand. You didn’t have the courage enough to do what you actually wanted, so you left it at that. The man removed his hands from the wall and stepped back. You walked past him towards the door in hope that the cloaked man would say something to stop you, but he remained quiet. You walked out the door and shut it behind you. As the door clicked as a sign of it being closed, the tears started running. You didn’t want your friends to see you this way and ask what happened, you just wanted to be alone and cry it out. You sank down on the ground. Why had your brain chosen him?


	8. Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SO SORRY IM SLOW. I promise I will try to be better at updating! Had the worst writers block lately... Havent figured out how I want their relationship to unfold yet but we will get there! Thank you so much for all the cute comments, you guys make me so happy and inspired to continue writing. <3 
> 
> Unfortunately, this is a really short chapter but I will make the next one longer I swearrr

  
You fought to stand up. Your knees were weak and your body were drained of energy but you couldn’t stay outside his office. Not like this. Not after that. You stumbled through the halls, tears still rolling down your cheeks and the nausea from before making itself known once again. With one hand placed on the wall beside you you managed to guide yourself away from the dungeons and up the stairs. The halls were currently empty, but you knew that a student could come walking any second in their way towards their common room so you knew you needed to stop roaming the halls and get to a room where you could be left alone. You didn’t care what room, just a room where you wouldn’t be seen or heard. When your hand touched a door you stopped in surprise. With squinted eyes you looked at the door and you couldn’t remember it being a door at this spot. For a second you debated if it could be the room of requirement but you quickly realised that it was located on the seventh floor which was way above your current location. You figured that it was only because of your current state that you had forgotten it being there. You blinked some tears out of your eyes and looked more closely at the door. On the big door you could see a tiny picture of a bathtub with bubbles and you tilted you head slightly. With curiosity and slight desperation you opened the door to reveal a room with a big bath in the middle. Bubbles floated on the water and the room smelled like soap when you stepped inside. You closed the door behind you and saw that you could lock it, which you did without hesitation. In relief of not risking being seen you once again sank down to the ground, closed your eyes and let the tears roll. You were confused, hurt and worried. These feelings combined with your nausea made you feel like you could pass out any minute. You clenched your jaw and tried to force yourself to take deep and slow breaths. Calm down. Calm down. Just breathe. Calm down. You opened your eyes and shuffled your body forwards until you reached the bath. With slightly jagged movement you undressed and pulled yourself into the bath. The water was hot on your skin and the bubbles tickled your body when you sank down. You continued trying to focus on your breathing as you let the warmth from the water transfer to your body. The tears stopped and your body felt like it was floating on clouds. You closed your eyes and with a sigh, everything turned black.

You woke up with an intense burning in your chest, coughing up water on the stone floor as you felt a warm hand on your naked back. You could hear voices around you but the pain was too intense for you to focus on anything else. You took panicked breaths between the gags and coughs, not caring who was watching.

“Oh deary..” you heard the owner to the warm hand say as she put, what you figured was a cloak, over you. You gaged one last time before you let your head rest on the floor. The voices around you continued but you couldn’t care less at this moment. Every breath felt like you were swallowing fire and your body wouldn’t move anymore. You stared into nothing, your eyes couldn’t focus. The warm hand from before caressed your face.

“Where is madam Pomfrey?!” You heard her yell to someone and you could finally recognize the voice as Professor McGonagall.

“What were you doing?” She asked in a whisper without expecting an answer. You laid there on the cold stone floor with McGonagall trying to comfort you to the best of her abilities for a couple of minutes before another pair of hands touched you.

“Help me carry her up to the hospital wing.” Madam Pomfrey said. They wrapped you in several blankets and tried their best to pick you up but with no luck. The only way they would be able to move you was if one took the arms and the other the legs, but that was not a suitable way during the circumstances. Suddenly you felt two arms under you, picking you up. You recognized the smell that you had longed for for so long and tears started, again, rolling down your cheeks, but this time without a single expression.

“Severus?” The two women said with surprise. Your whole body were still paralyzed with pain as the tears rolled down. As much as you wanted to feel the cloaked man's body against your own you couldn’t wait for him to take you to the hospital wing. You hated being unable to move the way you wanted to, you hated crying, you hated pain. You wanted it to be over. You wanted to rest. As the professor hurried through the halls with the two women behind him you managed to turn your head just slightly, enough for you to look up at him. The man's jaws were clenched, eyes narrow looking forward. You looked at the scratches on his face and thought about what had been the cause. That it was none of your business was clear, but you still wanted to know. You still worried. Your eyes scanned his face and took in every detail you could as he carried you. It didn’t take long before you were in the hospital wing. The professor put you down on one of the beds and looked at you. Your eyes met as madam Pomfrey caught up and brought some bottles to the side of the bed. The cloaked man quickly turned away and walked out, but you could hear his words to McGonagall as they met in the doorway.

“Keep me updated.” He said sternly and you felt a warm feeling in your body through the pain. Maybe he really did care about you too.


	9. Better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANOTHER CHAPTER THE SAME DAY? WHAAAT? I'm in a creative flow people and I will give you what you want. 
> 
> ENJOY

“How is she?” said a low and kind voice.

“She will be fine, but she needs to rest.” answered another voice. You slowly opened your eyes, feeling groggy. You turned your head to see the two people talking and were met by Dumbledore’s kind eyes. He and madam Pomfrey stood not far away from you, close enough to have their eyes on you but far away enough to not accidentally disturb you. You gave the headmaster a smile before you tried to sit up. Madam Pomfrey saw what you were trying to do and hurried over.

“Careful dear!” she said with worry. Her hands placed on your back and shoulder to helped you to sit up in the hard bed. You coughed and felt the burning from earlier, only in a much smaller scale. You swallowed before you looked up again at the old man that had slowly come closer.

“Hello Headmaster.” you said with a defeated smile.

“Good morning, Y/N. I see that you are feeling better.” she said with the same kind voice he always had.

“I guess.” you said and tried to make it sound happier than you were. Honestly you felt like shit. Sure, the burning was almost completely gone but your mind was still chaos. You didn’t know how to feel and your body felt numb. Madam Pomfrey stroked her hand up and down your back in a comforting gesture.

“I will get you some pumpkin juice, but after that you need to rest. Okay?” Madam Pomfrey said as she tucked some of your hair behind your ear. You looked at her hand nodded with a small smile. The witch stood up straight and walked out of the big room leaving you alone with Dumbledore. The old wizard sat down at the side of your bed and looked sternly into your eyes.

“Taking a bath when you are tired and down was not your brightest idea, Y/N.” he said and raised his eyebrows slightly. You looked at the man with surprise.

“It has been a long time since I saw Severus this upset.” He chuckled. “You must be one of his favourite students, even if he gives you a hard time.” he continued with a whisper and a smile. You stared at the old wizard with wide eyes. Had he just said that? Dumbledore stood up as madam Pomfrey came back with a cup in one hand and a bottle with unknown content in the other.

“I will tell him you are feeling better.” The headmaster said with a wink before he turned to madam Pomfrey.

“Good day Poppy.” he nodded, “Albus.” she nodded back to the man and he left. You were speechless. You sat there with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth in surprise and confusion while madam Pomfrey did...something. You were not sure anymore that you were in your right state of mind, because you could not believe that Dumbledore would say something like that. It almost sounded like he knew everything. Like he knew about the pepperup potion the professor had caringly sent you, about every feeling you had about your professor, about the argument you two had before this whole incident. Your thoughts were interrupted by a glass being shoved right in front of your face. You took the glass and looked at the liquid inside. It was the same thickness as pumpkin juice, but it was slightly green and… didn’t smell very well. You looked up at madam Pomfrey.

“It’s green.” you stated with slight disgust written over your face. “Pumpkin juice is not green.” Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes.

“Drink up now.” she said and made a gesture as to tell me to hurry. You hesitantly brought the glass up to your lips and took a sip. The liquid tasted rank and you made a ganging noise and squinted your eyes.

“Oh stop fussing.” Madam Pomfrey said sternly. You took a deep breath and started to drink even though your brain told you that this was a bad idea. Your stomach and tastebuds agreed and it took all your willpower to get the liquid down. When you were done you gave the glass to madam Pomfrey and looked at her with betrayal.

“I thought you said you would get me pumpkin juice.” you said bitterly with an undertone of disgust. The taste was exactly as the smell: rank.

“I did. Just with an extra ingredient to speed your recovery.” she said and you could hear that she thought she was very clever. You sighed and laid down. Your limbs still felt slightly numb and a small burning was still present in your lungs as you breathed, but you were better. You closed your eyes. You still felt tired. Madam Pomfrey’s hand brushed your cheek before she left and you could see through your eyelids how the light was turned of and the room was filled with darkness. It didn’t take long before you fell asleep.

***

You slowly opened your eyes, the room around you were dark, there were barely any light that could help making out your surroundings. You turned your head and saw a shape standing there in the dark. Your sight was blurry so you couldn’t see what or who the shape was. Breathing could be heard and you knew it was a person standing there, but who was it? The shape was too tall to be madam Pomfrey. You could barely hold your eyes open and you sighed as you closed them in defeat. Slow steps echoed between the walls and you forced your eyes open again with the little energy you had.

“Sev?” you asked quietly as the shape came closer. You could now make out some parts of that face that you always tried to observe as much of as you could. You could see the black hair framing his torn face and the scratches on it. You fought for your eyes to stay open, and in frustration you managed to raise your arm and reach for him, but he was too far away. Your arm was about to fall when you felt him grab your hand. He held your hand tenderly as he walked closer. Putting down your arm on the bed again, letting you go. You tried to look up at him, but you were out of energy. Soon everything was dark again.

***

You woke up feeling confused, what had happened? Had you dreamed? You sighed. Of course you had. Why would the potions master come here to check on you? ...Maybe he liked watching people sleep? The thought was kinda creepy so you decided to push that thought out of your mind. And even if he did, it was only a dream even if it had felt real, you told yourself. The rooms was low lit and you slowly sat up and looked around. You were currently the only one in the hospital wing, all the other beds stood empty, waiting to be used. You rubbed your eyes and yawned. Your body felt warm, like it does after you have slept for a really long time. It was nice but also slightly uncomfortable, you were not used to being this warm. With a swift movement you removed the quilt that laid over your legs and swung them over the edge of the bed. You stretched them out, almost testing if they still worked. Your body felt like normal again, except for the warmth. No numbness, no pain. You put your feet to the ground and stood up slowly. You walked with unsure steps into the middle of the room, observing everything you could.

“Oh you’re up!” you heard madam Pomfrey’s voice say. You turned and saw her coming towards you with a smile.

“Feeling better?” you nodded. “Excellent. You’re good to go back to your dorm.” she smiled and walked past you to make the bed.

“Are you sure? I can just go?” you asked and the witch looked at you and nodded.

“Just tell the head of your house that you’re back.” Oh no.

“Can’t I just stay here?” you tried but madam Pomfrey shut you down immediately.

“Are you still feeling ill?”

“No…” She pointed to the door.

“Go.” you sighed and started walking out the hospital wing down to the dungeons. On your way you met several of your friends, both Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, that were worried and asked how you were feeling. You gave them all the same answer: “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”. You told them that you had to talk to the professor but that you would fill them in later. They all looked at you in pity. They cared. But going to talk to the professor was easier said than done. You tried to collect all the courage you had in your body. You had to face him, even if you didn’t want to. You didn’t even bother to take a shower or change from the hospital pyjamas they had given you. It just needed to get done as quickly as possible. When you reached the professor's office you hesitated. Maybe you could do this later after all? You shook your head and took a deep breath. Just knock on the door, you thought, and so you did. After a couple of seconds the door opened. The professor looked down at you before he stepped back and opened the door more widely as to invite you in. You walked into his office feeling slightly uncomfortable. You glanced at the wall, remembering how he had pinned you there, how close you had been, what you could have done together, what he could have done to you. You took another deep breath as the heat between your legs made itself known from the thoughts you were having.

“Madam Pomfrey said I needed to tell you I was back.” you said, trying to focus on something else. The professor walked past you quietly. He sat down at his desk, observing your every move.

“Alright. Now go change.” he said and you nodded. You turned and walked back to the door. Just as you opened the door and were about to leave he opened his mouth again.

“Never do that again.” he said sternly and you froze. You turned your head and looked at him, his eyes looking straight into yours with an expression you had never seen on the cloaked man before. It was worry. He did care. You gave him a smile before you walked out of his office and closed the door after you. Holy shit.


	10. Bombarda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO CUTIES! A really long chapter this time! Next chapter is already finished tbh, but I think I will wait to post it so that I don't bomb you with too much at the same time <3
> 
> anyhow, ENJOY

You looked into the mirror and sighed. You were nervous about going to class again, still feeling embarrassed over the almost-drowning-thing. The most nerve wracking though was seeing professor Snape again after he had basically told you to not make him worry. His true feelings towards you were still very unclear, but you knew he cared and at the moment that was all that was needed for the butterflies in your stomach to dance with excitement.

“You coming?” Said one of your roommates and you nodded. You walked through the halls with your friends towards the great hall for some breakfast and you could barely believe that you laid in a hospital bed this time yesterday. You stepped into the great hall, consciously avoiding to look up at Snape. You looked around as you walked to your seat at the slytherin table, giving small waves to your friends from the other houses. Your friends and yourself sat down, laughing over some of the silly jokes that were said. With a hand under your chin and a smile on your face your eyes made their way up to the teachers table and to professor Snape. He was already looking at you and you blushed at the thought that you had caught his attention. His eyes were slightly darker than you remembered them and his jaw was clenched. You had expected him to look away when your eyes had met like he usually did, but he didn’t this time. He continued to watch you and you wondered what he was thinking. You couldn’t say if his eyes on you were positive or negative, but you surely hoped that his thoughts were of the positive, and slightly naughty, kind. When the thoughts ran through your head the professor looked down and you could swear you saw a slight smirk appearing on his face. You remembered his talents and wanted to slap yourself for thinking such things in his presence again, but there were nothing you could do to help it. You looked back to your own table and focused on eating your breakfast. The slytherins around you joked around as usual, some of them sat and tried to brag about something but that rarely had any to little effect on fellow slytherins. You almost gave them the suggestion to go tell the hufflepuffs instead, they would at least pretend to care, but you decided against it. After a while you had all finished your breakfast and you decided to go back to the dorms for awhile before class started. As you and your friends walked down the great hall you turned around to see if the professor were watching you again and, to your satisfaction, he was. His eyes followed your form as you walked out of the hall and you couldn’t help the smile.

***

When you walked into potions your heart were racing. You tried not to look up at the professor to keep yourself calm. So long you had managed to go through the whole day feeling alright, but now, when you would have to face the professor up close, you were freaking out. You sat down at your usual seat and stared down into your desk as the class started. When the professor started talking you forced yourself to look up at him. Focus on his words, you thought, and you tried. Unfortunately, focusing on your professor’s words meant you had to focus on his mouth and that did absolutely not help keeping you concentrated on school. You slid down slightly on your chair, rubbing your hands on your face in frustration. The girl next to you laughed at your behaviour and you realised you had not just rubbed your face in frustration but you had also let out a small frustrated grunt. Some of your classmates closest to you looked back to see what you were doing and you were sure that the cloaked man must have noticed. He never missed anything in his classroom. But the professor chose to ignore it and continue the lesson which you were grateful for. The class ended up being mostly you copying the notes from the hufflepuff girl beside you as Snape talked, you couldn’t concentrate on his words so you thought concentrating on his words written down was better and didn’t result in you getting after in potions. With only a few minutes left of class a small paper came flying to your desk, passed down by some gryffindor boys. You opened it with Hannah curiously leaning over to see what was on it. A moving, badly drawn, picture of Snape with warts all over his face, crying, with the text “buhu im so ugly”. The girl beside you leaned back and you could almost hear her eyes roll. You looked up at the quietly laughing boys.

“Really? Are you two five?” You asked bitterly and the boys looked back at you.

“What? Are you a teacher's pet now?” One of them said with a childish voice before they continued laughing. You felt the anger raising, unable to keep it down you sent the flying paper back to the boys and when one of them caught it you started to wave your wand but you were interrupted by a stern voice.

“Miss Y/L/N. Detention.” The professor said without even looking your way. You looked at him in disbelief.

“Are you-” you stopped yourself. You looked angrily at the two gryffindor boys as they gave you a self-righteous smile. Luckily their smiles were not placed on their faces for long because Snape walked up and gave them both a slap in the back of their head.

“Five points from gryffindor.” He muttered before he walked away and continued class. When class ended everyone packed up their things except from you. Potions had been the last class of the day which meant that the detention you had just gotten would start just a few minutes after this class and you didn’t see the point in packing up. You would probably be forced to clean the cauldrons or something, so you gave the dirty ones that stood in a corner a nasty look.

“Pack up. My office.” Snape said when all the other students had left the classroom. You looked up at him in surprise but did as he said. You followed him to his office and stepped inside, watching him closely. He sat down behind his desk and looked at you sternly.

“You realise that you could have killed those boys if I hadn’t stopped you?” He said with slight anger.

“I didn’t do anything.” You tried to defend yourself.

“You were about to cast a bombarda spell. Don't think you can fool me.” He spat.

“I… was.” You confessed. “But I was trying to defend you!” You continued and he looked at you with a raised eyebrow.

“I told you I cared, didn’t I?” You said slightly lower in tone, you were scared to say these things but you forced yourself to put them out there. The professor stayed quiet as he looked at you. He didn’t seem angry anymore which made you relieved. Having him being angry at you were the worst. The cloaked man stood up and walked over to his private storage and opened the door. He nodded inside.

“You know what to do.” He said before he walked back and sat down again. You walked into the storage and looked around. Surprised over the fact that he let you in here again after last time, you had to check if the bottles with unicorn blood was still there. You moved and climbed up the ladder to where you remembered you had found them, but the shelf was empty. He had moved them. You decided to dust off the shelf while you were up there before you climbed down again. You walked and placed yourself between the two rooms, leaning on the doorframe with one of your arms as you watched the man work.

“I see you removed the bottles of unicorn blood.” You said with a slight uncertainty about bringing it up, and the cloaked man stopped his work to look up at you. His eyes on you made your heart beat faster as usual, but talking to him made you feel less anxious for every time you did it. He acted tough and indeed gave you a hard time sometimes just as Dumbledore had said, but he was never mean. You had seen his bad side towards other students, but he had never acted that way towards you. Sure, he could yell at you be slightly rude, but he had always done it because he cared. Or so you hoped.

“The official Hogwarts business?” You asked, figuring that you finding unicorn blood in his storage and him leaving for ‘official Hogwarts business’ the next day were connected.

“Continue. Cleaning.” He said bitterly before he looked down at his work again and you sighed.

“Professor. I can put two and two together.” You tried but the professor ignored you.

“Am I going to find anything else forbidden in here?” You asked, now with a slightly bitter tone.

“Probably.” He stated without looking up.

“Alrighty then.” You said, taking a deep breath before you continued cleaning. You picked up the nearest bottle and read the label. At least he had been honest, you thought. By now you were not even surprised over the things you found in this storage. After an hour of cleaning your arms felt like rubber, so you decided to take a break. You were nowhere near done cleaning, so pushing through would not end well. You stepped down from the ladder, walked over to the doorframe and placed your butt on the floor. The professor glanced at you before he put his quilt down.

“What now?” He asked.

“Nothing, I’m just taking a short break.”

“A break?”

“Yes professor. A break. My arms are hurting a little.” You looked down at your hands for a second before you looked back at the professor. The man's face showed a hint of that same expression you had seen on his face yesterday when you had come to his office. Worry. You smiled at your professor.

“I’m fine.” You reassured, even though he would never confess that he cared. Snape took his eyes off you and focused them on his work again for a few moments before he stood up and started to gather things from the shelves behind him. You observed him as he set up a cauldron and other necessities to make a potion and you actually became really excited to the the potions master do what he did best. You leaned your back against the doorframe to make yourself more comfortable and watched him prepare some of the ingredients. He looked at some of his notes before he made his way over to you and casually stepped over your legs to get into the storage. With quick movements he gathered some bottles before he once again casually stepped over you legs and walked back to the cauldron. You debated with yourself if you would address the fact that one of those bottles did indeed contain a forbidden ingredient and that you seeing him use it was a clear violation to the rules, but you decided to just stay quiet and watch him work. It was funny how he somehow managed to do something that would test your loyalty to him, maybe he wanted to have secrets with you. You chuckled at the thought. The man worked fast and smoothly, not one mistake were made even though you could tell that it was an extremely complicated potion. After a while you stood up and walked inside the storage, your arms felt fine again and you didn’t want to bother the professor, so you continued cleaning. Cleaning wasn’t anything you would call enjoyable, so you wanted it to be done as soon as possible. You were done after about two more hours and when you walked out of the storage Snape was once again sitting at his desk.

“I’m done.” You told him and he looked up at you as you walked over.

“Still wondering about those scratches though.” You said quietly, tilting your head. The professor rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Tell me and I will be on my way.” You tried to bargain, looking with pleading eyes at the man.

“Some wizards would do anything to get their hands on unicorn blood.” The professor said coldly.

“Now be on your way.” He nodded towards the door. You looked down at the floor and smiled before leaving. He acted hard but you knew that if he really didn’t want to tell you he wouldn’t have. He would have just kicked you out when you were done and that would have been it, but he hadn’t. He had finally told you and your cheeks became flustered by the thought of him sharing things with you and no one else. You figured that most of the teachers already knew everything about this Hogwarts business, but they didn’t count. You looked at the clock and saw that the great hall were open for at least another hour, so you made your way through the halls and up the stairs to get some food. Dumbledore greeted you with a nod and a smile from his seat at the teacher's table when you entered and you gave him a small wave. Some of your friends still sat at the table laughing and discussing what you thought, from the little you had heard, were muggle tv shows. When you sat down beside them they all became quiet and looked at you.

“What?” You asked, worried that something had happened.

“You look… suspiciously happy after being in detention with Snape for over three hours.” One said and they all squinted their eyes at you with suspicion. You rolled you eyes.

“I got out of detention, realising I still had time to get food. You would also be very happy when you reached the table seeing all of this.” You said pointing to the full plate of food in front of you.

“Fair enough.” They said before they continued talking about some of the most popular muggle shows. They all tried hard to get you to agree and make their point stronger but when they didn’t succeed they gave you small whispers of betrayal such as: “I thought we were friends” and “you’re not going with me to Hogsmeade this weekend”. You laughed at their faked sadness and they gave you a wink. You ate while they continued making their case and argumenting about why one show was the best and another one sucked. When you were done eating they were still going, you did your best to get their attention, clapping and snapping your fingers at them.

“I’m done, let’s go.” You said and they all stood up to walk with you to the dorms without stopping their conversation. You laughed when one of them yelled “WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY? DEAN IS THE SEXIEST MOTHERFUCKER I’VE LAID MY EYES ON”. You and your friends laughed as you walked down the halls to the dungeons but stopped suddenly when you saw a door standing wide open in front of you. Your heart started racing with slight panic when you recognized the familiar room staring back at you.


	11. Breathe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO! Posting this earlier than expected because of that cutie that commented on the last chapter saying that she read all 10 chapters in one sitting, your comment were too cute for me to keep this from you! 
> 
> HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY SOME WORRIED SNAPE

The bath stood there, as if it was waiting for someone to use it. The smell of the same soap as that night hit you and you almost started to hyperventilate when you remembered the burning pain, the crying, the agony. Your friends had seen the door but had only glanced inside before continuing to walk and talk, not really thinking twice about it. One of your friends noticed that you had stopped and turned around.

“Y/N? Are you okay?” They asked. You tried to breathe normally.

“Yeah I just need to go breathe.” You said and pointed back up the stairs as you took a few steps back, eyes still focused on the bath. Your breathing became more rapid and your vision became slightly blurry and even went black for a second, but you shook it off.

“Should one of us come with you?”

“No. It’s alright. I’ll be back soon.” You said without being able to hide the pure lie and fear in your voice.

“Someone should get Snape.” You heard one of them say with worry before you turned away and ran up the stairs. When you got back on the floor of the great hall you stopped to look around. With your breaths becoming even shorter and faster you needed somewhere to calm down. You figured that the place Hannah had taken you earlier would be a good place to go. It was secluded and, most importantly, far away from that bath. You set off with, unfortunately, wobbly legs and now a slight trouble breathing. Breathe. Calm down. Despite your efforts to calm down as you hurried through the halls your breathing and heart wouldn’t slow down. You saw the secluded room down the hall and slowed down your pace. Suddenly you felt someone grab your arm from behind and shoving your back onto the wall. You looked at the cloaked man in shock as he quickly scanned over your body while pinning you to the wall with one hand. Once again you stood there with your back on a wall with Severus Snape in front of you.

“What happened?” He asked seriously.

“What?” You had totally forgot what was going on. You started feeling lightheaded and realised you had not just managed to stop hyperventilating, you had stopped breathing all together. Your legs gave out under you and you started to slide down the wall. The professor grabbed you with both his arms and held you up.

“Y/N. Breathe. You're having a panic attack.” He said calmly but sternly. You grabbed the man’s cloak and tried to take a deep breath but without much success. You managed to take small, quick breaths, being back at hyperventilating. Being this close to Severus did not help at all, but you didn’t know if you would be able to get out of this without him now.

“Y/N.” He repeated. You realised you had never heard him call you by your first name before and it made the butterflies in your stomach come to life. How a person could feel all of this at the same time were a mystery to you, but you decided to think about that later. Right now you just needed to calm down. Breathe. Just breathe. You managed to take a deep breath, but keeping the following breaths calm was the hard part. You took another deep breath. You looked up at your professor. His eyes, dark and filled with worry, looked at you.

“Severus.” You said with a smile before you broke the eye contact and let your head rest on his chest. If he could use your first name, you were allowed to use his. Your nose were filled by his scent and it made you slightly calmer, he smelled good and his chest was soft but still firm under your head. You thought that he must be hiding more muscles under there than you might think from his appearance. Your breaths became steadier as you stood there, taking in the feeling of being held by the man you desired most of all. Thinking back you had felt his body before, when he carried you away, saving you from being in agony and pain on the cold stone floor. A tear fell down your cheek as you remembered the incident. You had thought you were fine, but apparently almost drowning had created what you guessed could be called a trauma. The cloaked man looked down at you before he spoke.

“Can you walk?” He asked, obviously trying to make his voice sound less caring than it actually was. You tried standing on your own, letting him go with one hand but keeping a tight grip on his clothes with the other. He slowly let go of you as you regained your balance. He looked down at your hand that were desperately holding onto him, but he didn’t say anything. When you thought you were ready to walk you nodded to him and he placed one hand on your hip to lead you back through the halls and down the stairs. As you came closer to where the bath was located your steps became smaller and your breaths quicker again. You were still not over the panic attack, seeing the bath would only blow it up again. The professor noticed the change of your behaviour and made you turn into a different corridor, leading away from the room with the bubbles. You clenched your jaw, trying to forget the fear as the cloaked man lead you. You were soon in a corridor you had never seen before. Snape opened a door that revealed a staircase, probably leading down to the dungeons. You made your way down and soon you were indeed in the dungeons. You could tell from the decorations and the looks of the stone, but you couldn’t say that you had seen this corridor either. The walking had made you exhausted, even though you hadn’t walked long at all. The professor opened another door and lead you through it, and now you could actually recognize your surroundings. Snape’s office were only a couple of meters away and you reached the door fairly quickly. The man lead you inside and sat you down on one of the armchairs near his desk. You let go of his clothes and he turned and walked up to one off the walls stacked with shelves filled with potions. You brought your legs up and curled into a ball. When you didn’t need to use all your strength to focus on walking and holding onto the professor you couldn’t stop the images from filling your head. You saw the darkness, the water surrounding you as you tried to breath, the burning of the water finding its way down to your lungs. You pressed your hands on your head, pulling your hair in fear and frustration. You let out a desperate cry as the tears rolled down your cheeks. A strong hand grabbed one of your wrists and forced your hand to let go of your hair. The hand let go of your wrist and instead took your chin between three fingers and made you turn your head. Severus Snape stood on his knees beside you and gave you a small bottle.

“Drink.” He commanded. You tried to take a deep breath before you took the bottle and swallowed the content. A soothing feeling followed and you felt yourself becoming calmer. Images no longer flashing through your head. You looked at the professor who was watching you closely.

“What did you give me?” You asked tiredly, trying to give him a smile.

“A calming draught.” He answered without stopping, observing every little move you made and without letting his guard down.

“We should get you to the hospital wing.” He stated and stood up. You shook your head to the best of your abilities.

“No. No more walking.” You said. The panic attack disappeared slowly but surely and you could finally breathe normally again. You dried the tears from your eyes before you looked up at the man. He was frowning, probably because he disagreed with you. You sighed and sat up normally.

“I’ll just go to my room and get some sleep.” You said as you slowly stood up.

“No, you’re not.” The cloaked man said and you could hear that there would be no debate. Realising that the calming draught not just had a calming effect on the mind but also on the body a little too late, you damp down on the armchair again, harder than you would have liked. Before you could do anything else the man sighed and put one arm around your back and the other under your legs before he picked you up. Your heart skipped a beat from surprise by his actions and your cheeks still managed to become flustered even though you thought the calming draught would affect these feelings too. The man carried you through an archway into what looked like a small lounge. He put you down on the black couch, looking sternly at you as he stepped away, ordering you to lay down.

“Rest. I will be back soon.” He said and started to turn away from you.

“No, please don't leave.” You said reaching for him, afraid the panic would come back if you were left alone. He looked back at you, at your arm reaching for him and you thought you saw a tiny smirk on his face, but it could also have been your mind playing tricks on you. The man took a step closer and he grabbed your hand. He held your hand tenderly as he guided it back to the couch beside your body and you couldn’t help the feeling of deja vu. You looked up at him.

“Was that... not a dream?” You asked in confusion, referring to your stay at the hospital wing and the, what you previously thought was a dream, moment you woke up to see Severus Snape watching over you. The man did not answer you question but turned again to leave.

“I’ll be back soon.” He said and disappeared. You felt slightly betrayed, but you hadn’t expected him to watch over you all the time either. You turned over to your side, facing the back to the couch. It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep, both your body and mind were exhausted and the calming draught helped you drift away even faster.


	12. Leo

  
You woke up in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey were walking around, cleaning and making sure everything was in order.

“Good morning.” You said and madam Pomfrey turned to you.

“Good morning dear.” She said with a soft smile.

“I was not happy when Dumbledore brought you here last night I tell you that much.” She said with more worry than sternness.

“Dumbledore?” You asked and she nodded.

“You two apparated here, you were in a deep sleep so no wonder you don't remember.” She said and brushed it off. You blushed from embarrassment when you thought about Dumbledore finding you sleeping on your potion master's couch. It felt like that would be an excellent reason to kick you out, but no, you were still here and madam Pomfrey did not act like you were going to be expelled. The fact that Snape must have gone to fetch Dumbledore yesterday made you… slightly confused. Wouldn’t it have been easier if he asked madam Pomfrey for help? If any at all? You tried pushing the questions out of your mind and a couple of hours went by while madam Pomfrey held her eye on you and you sat there in your bed, reading and trying to catch up on the schoolwork you missed by being stuck in this bed. Eventually, madam Pomfrey came up to you with a new uniform for you to change into. You assumed that this meant you could go back to your normal schedule, so you changed and made yourself ready to leave.

“Dear, Dumbledore will come and follow you to class.” She said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and you clenched your eyes together at her words. Dumbledore? Following you to class? This would be more than embarrassing. Everyone would look at you like you were a new exciting circus coming to town. And the rumours? You could already hear them spreading through the school. A light facepalm later you opened your eyes and turned to the door, waiting for Dumbledore to show up. The headmaster arrived after a minute or two, greeting you and madam Pomfrey with a smile and a simple nod.

“Hello professor, following me to class I hear.” You said as a greeting to the man as you walked up to him, trying to sound as happy about the situation as you could.

“Miss Y/L/N, good day.” He smiled. “It will be only for today, there is something I would like to discuss with you.” The man continued and you got a lump in your throat from his words. You didn’t even want to think about what this man wanted to talk to you about. Dumbledore and yourself started walking out of the hospital wing, your heart beating faster from worry. It took a solid minute before the headmaster opened his mouth again.

“It has come to my attention that you have been spending time in Severus private storage.” The wizard said and you tried keeping calm.

“I cleaned it, during detention, sir.” You said, feeling guilty even though you were speaking the truth.

“Twice.” You quickly added. The man nodded understandingly at your words.

“Not many have been in there, Y/N. Severus’ is very… protective of his belongings.” The man said and gave you a smile and you suddenly became very suspicious.

“Since you have already seen it and know what is inside, I would wish for you to take care of it on a regular basis. It becomes awfully dusty.” The wizard said and your chin dropped. You? Taking care of your potion master's private storage? ON A REGULAR BASIS? That meant you had to face the cloaked man more than you already did, and your heart barely managed that. And to keep that storage clean and organized would take a lot of work, you would probably have to spend several hours every week to keep it from looking dirty. You were not sure even the headmaster realised what he was asking you about.

“I’m not so sure that’s such-” you started before the man interrupted you.

“You will be compensated for your work, and, I am sure Severus would enjoy the company.” Dumbledore said with a smirk. You were very sceptical to his words, somehow you felt like Dumbledore had an ulterior motive to giving you this task, but you didn’t really want to think about what that could be.

“Have you… talked to him about this?” You asked while looking down at the floor. This did not sound like something that Severus Snape would ask for, so you were positive this was entirely Dumbledore’s idea. A chuckle could be heard from the man beside you.

“Don’t you worry, Y/N. Now hurry inside.” He said and gave you a light push towards the classroom door. You hadn’t even noticed you were already here, instead your thoughts had been filled with your headmaster's words and thoughts about Severus Snape. You stumbled forward to the open door and walked in unsurely while looking back at the old man. You saw people looking at you, some with wide eyes and some squinting with suspiciousness. When you walked further into the classroom you heard whispers all around you, speculating where you had been all day and why the headmaster had followed you to class. You sighed and tried to ignore it. The rumors would go around for a couple of days and after that you would be old news. As soon as you sat down at your seat, Leo swung his arm around you and pulled you in closer.

“Y/N. Skipping classes and getting escorted by the headmaster, are we?” He smiled and you tried to get away from his grip.

“Are you having a flirt with Dumbledore?” He joked in a whisper before he let you go.

“Ew. Just ew.” You said and looked at him with disgust written all over your face. The boy laughed at your reaction.

“But for real, how are you? What happened yesterday? We were worried sick.” He said and you felt slightly guilty for him and your other friends. They had fetched Snape when they saw your state by the bathtub, but they had probably not heard anything after that. Leo looked at you with worry.

“I’m not sure, Snape said I had a panic attack. It was… kinda scary, but I’m fine now. Promise. Just not going near that tub again soon.” You said, trying to be as honest as possible while still avoiding to go into details. The boy gave you a small smile before he put his hand on your head and ruffled your hair.

“Are you serious? Do you want me to look like I don’t own a brush?” You said while pushing his hand away before trying to fix your hair.

“You always look like you don’t own a brush, love.” He said with a wink and you punched his arm.

“Oh so funny.” While smiling sarcastically. The two of you had sort of a love-hate relationship. Leo was one of your best friends and you always argued, mostly playfully rather than seriously.

“Quiet!” You heard before the lesson started.


	13. Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone that helped me report the person that stole my story. It's down now so here is another chapter!

The rest of the day went by as any other day. You went to your classes, talked to your friends in between, lunch, more classes and after that: dinner. You were too scared to look up at the teacher's table this day in fear of catching either Dumbledore's or Snape’s eyes on you. After the conversation with the headmaster you would feel too embarrassed to have eye contact with either of them and you had avoided just that, both at lunch and now dinner. You focused on your food and with determination you managed to go through both visits to the great hall without an eye on your teachers. When you walked out from dinner you felt relieved. You didn’t have to face either of them for another day. With a sigh of relief you walked down to the dungeons, this time being sure not to walk past that particular door, and into your common room. The rest of the night was uneventful, and it was nicer than you had ever imagined to have absolutely nothing happen to you. You went to bed early and made yourself comfortable with pillows and blankets, almost making your bed feel like being hugged by a cloud. Compared to the beds in the hospital wing, this was a blessing from Merlin himself. You slept for maybe four hours before you woke up by someone shaking you violently.

“Y/N! Wake up!” Shouted the slytherin girl standing next to your bed.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” You said angrily, it was the middle of the night!

“Something is going on in the common room.” She said with slight fear in her voice. You sat up, still angry over having your sleep disturbed.

“Like what?” You asked.

“How am I supposed to know?”

“BECAUSE YOU WERE THE ONE THAT WOKE ME UP BECAUSE OF IT!” You yelled as quiet as you could and the girl put her hands up as if she were being arrested.

“I heard something, calm down, I wouldn’t wake you up for nothing.” She said, eyebrows slightly raised from being surprised by your outburst. You looked out over your room, the other two girls were surprisingly still sleeping.

“Why didn’t you wake them up?” You said, pointing towards the other end of the room.

“I love them, but they wouldn’t be much help if I’m honest.” She said and you couldn’t really argue. Some slytherins were just… not very helpful by nature. You took a deep breath before climbing out of bed. You grabbed a robe and put it on over your pyjamas before taking your wand and heading for the door.

“What are you doing?!” Whispered your roommate.

“I’m going to see if there is anything going on in the common room. Wasn’t that what you woke me up for?” You said and she hesitated before grabbing her own robe and wand before following you. The two of you walked slowly through the corridors with your wands lit, listening carefully for sounds that was out of the ordinary. When you came closer to the common room you heard arguing voices.

“Nox” the both of you said as you continued walking closer. When you reached the large room you heard one voice that were very familiar: Leo. Leo and another boy was standing in the dark, partially lit by the two wands, seemingly arguing over something.

“Great, case closed, it’s just Leo.” You said and turned to your roommate.

“Can we go back to sleep now?” You asked her but she didn’t look at you, her eyes were fixed on Leo.

“Leo!” She whispered and you looked back at the boy. Your roommate lit her wand as Leo looked over to see who had called his name. When he saw your faces lit up he relaxed a little, but it was something with the look on his face that made you slightly concerned.

“Did you hear it too?” Leo asked quietly as the two of you started to approach them. You pointed at your roommate as she nodded. The boy that stood next to Leo rolled his eyes, he obviously didn’t believe there had been any strange sounds. You barely made it to Leo before you heard the noise too, coming from the lake. The four of you looked to the windows, trying to see something out of the ordinary in the lake. Suddenly something big hit the outside wall, making the whole common room shake. You almost fell over from the quake but managed to regain your balance. Leo hurried over to the windows, looking for whatever had hit the wall and inspecting the glass to see that it was still intact.

“What the bloody hell was that?” The other boy asked uneasily.

“No idea.” The three of you said at the same time, with just an uneasy tone as the boy. Before you knew you saw something quickly swim by the windows before hitting the wall again, harder this time. None of you could keep yourself on your feet this time, so you all tripped backwards, some of you with more luck than others. The boy landed on the couch and Leo managed to grab the wall to slow down his fall while you and your roommate hit the stone floor.

“Y/N! Millie! Are you okay?” Leo shouted as he tried to balance himself, the room still shaking. You couldn’t answer before you heard people rushing through the halls from the dorms and eventually entering the common room on unsteady legs from the shaking. The common room wasn’t the only thing in motion, the dorms were too. A distraught sound from what you assumed was a beast could be heard before the wall was hit again. Students screamed and the room shook violently as dust fell down from the ceiling. People ran to the best of their abilities in panic towards the passage that led out of the common room while the wall was hit once more. You tried to turn to your stomach, feeling a pain in the back of your head as you lifted it off the ground. The shaking made every move so much more difficult, but you finally managed to turn over. You saw students running past you, barely noticing you on the floor amongst the caos. You lifted your arm, feeling with your hand on the spot on the back of your head that hurt, only to feel something warm and sticky through your hair. Bringing your hand down you looked at the red liquid. Great. Next stop was the hospital wing. Again. You sighed and tried to look back at your roommate that laid on the floor only a couple meters away from you. Her face was twisted in agony and you could see how blood ran down her face from her eyebrow. Leo had managed to crawl over to her to help her and you felt bad for not being able to help anyone.

“Move!” You heard a voice say and you breathed out in relief. He was here. You looked up to where the voice had come from and you saw Professor Snape rushing your way, towards the wall that had been hit, while surprisingly gently pushing people out of his way. He stopped for a moment when he saw you on the floor and he quickly looked at the floor beside you. Not knowing what he was looking at you turned your head to see and there was a little puddle of blood on the floor where you had hit your head. You looked back at the man to see how the professor’s eyes went from the puddle to your bloody hand and then to your eyes. His face was stone cold, but you could see the concern in his black eyes and it made you happy to know that the man only seemed to show something else than bitterness or emotionlessness when you were involved. The cloaked man took a few quick steps forward to reach you before he kneeled and gently helped you to sit up on the floor now that the shaking had stopped. The man observed you, probably to see if you were okay, before he looked up at the windows with anger in his eyes.

“Did you see what it was?” He asked without taking his eyes from the windows.

“Something big. Maybe the giant squid, I don’t know.” You said while the man slowly stood up. You heard more familiar voices coming your way and soon almost all of the teachers entered the common room and joined Snape. Most of the slytherin students had already left the dungeons as madam Pomfrey rushed to you and asked how you were, worried due to the blood. You insisted on being fine and that she should check up on Millie instead, and so she did after much hesitation. You tried to stand up as the teachers discussed what had happened and what they would do about it. You wobbled a little and almost lost your balance before Severus grabbed your arm to keep you from falling.

“Careful.” He ordered sternly and you gave him a small smile. The man loosened his grip of your arm and turned to the other teachers, but only enough so that he still had his eyes on you. Slowly, you walked over to Leo who was standing next to where madam Pomfrey checked up on Millie.

“I never thought that was possible.” Leo said without taking his eyes of Millie.

“Huh?” You didn’t understand what he was talking about. He looked at you before he nodded towards Snape.

“Snape. Being genuinely worried.” Your cheeks turning red at Leo’s words.

“How is she?” You asked, looking at Millie in a desperate attempt to change the conversation. He let out a chuckle before answering.

“I think she will be fine. She burst her eyebrow but it doesn’t seem to be anything more than that.. How about you?”

“Bleeding and stings a little, but I think I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” He said and smiled at you. You returned the smile before resting your head on his shoulder. After this and only four hours of sleep, you were extremely tired. You looked at the teachers and saw Severus clenching his jaw before turning away completely. Dumbledore, who stood beside Snape, looked over to you and gave you and Leo a smile before also turning away. You could have sworn it looked like Dumbledore had suppressed a laugh as he turned and your eyes widened when you thought you realised what had just happened. You lifted your head from Leo’s shoulder and looked at the two men whose backs faced you. Had Snape just got... jealous? You could barely hold your mouth closed. No, that was impossible. Sure that your teacher could care about you, you were a student from his house, but to get jealous when you are close to another guy? You convinced yourself you overthought the situation, but your heart still started to beat faster by the thought. You yawned from exhaustion and decided to lay down on one of the couches, determined to not leave Millie or Leo. The boy that had accompanied Leo before was gone, he had probably left with the other students as soon as he had the chance. You almost fell asleep, but became wide awake when you heard them trying to get Millie to walk. You sat up in the couch before slowly standing up, watching as madam Pomfrey held Millie's arm and Leo the other. She walked slow but steady and you breathed out in relief. You followed them until they passed the teachers that had now become fewer. Some of them had probably gone to take care of the students or gone to try to figure out what had happened in the lake. You looked at Snape, but he avoided your eyes. With a sigh you continued walking after the others.


	14. Lake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again!  
> Long time since the last chapter, I know, I’m so sorry! Life is just shit sometimes and I haven’t really had the inspiration to write. :( Still feeling somewhat drained and quite lost in where I want this story to go but I hope that you guys can be patient. Would love to toss around ideas with you guys who I know have stuck up with my awful schedule about the story! I dont really know if that would be possible or which platform we could do that on, or even if you guys would want to. Let me know!
> 
> Anyhow, enjoy this new chapter!  
> PS. This work is open for everyone again! Yay!

You had followed madam Pomfrey and your friends to the hospital wing. After thurow examinations by Pomfrey, you and Leo were clear to go, but Millie unfortunately had to stay at least until the next day. Leo tried his best to be allowed to stay at her side, but madam Pomfrey were stubborn and wouldn’t let herself be charmed by Leo’s pleading eyes or words. The boy finally accepted that he would have to leave so he sighed, thanked her and gave Millie a last look before he turned to you. He gave you a nod before the two of you left the hospital wing. The other Slytherins had gathered in the great hall, so that was where you were headed. When you and Leo arrived, Leo walked directly inside and sat down by your friends, but you didn’t follow his lead. You stopped by the entrance, looking around the room: searching. You saw student after student, professor Binns, more students, madam Hooch and professor Flitwick, then even more students, but not the one person you wanted to see. Professor Binns noticed your form, hesitating if you should join your friends in the great hall or walk away, and the ghost hovered over to you.

”Miss Y/L/N. Madam Pomfrey cleared you I see. How are you feeling?” He said politely with his monotone, and if you were completely honest, quite chilling, voice.

”I’m fine, professor.” You forced a smile.

”Where’s.. the other professors? Do they know what happened?” You asked the ghost. The professor shook his head.

”Unfortunately not, miss. The others are currently out searching for an explanation, I’m sure they will be back shortly.” He said before he gave you a nod and floated over to the other teachers in the great hall. You took a deep breath, not sure what to do. Just sitting here, waiting for Severus and the others to do all the work when they hadn’t even been there didn’t feel right. You could help, you knew that. You took a few short and quiet steps backwards with your eyes on the teachers to make sure they weren’t watching before you bolted. You jogged down the halls to the dungeon, not stopping until you arrived at the common room. The room was empty and quiet, dust covered the floor, and not far from you the blood from you and Millie shined in the faint light that came through the windows. You walked slowly over to the window you had thought you had seen something through before. The lake was at first sight empty, but as you looked closer, you could see something red floating around in the green water. The water was too foggy for you to be able to tell what it was, and you realised there was only one way to find out what it was: you had to take another bath. You turned around and quickly made your way to your dorm room, grabbing your bathing suit and putting it on under your robes before hurrying through the common room and dungeons to eventually get out of the castle. The wind grabbed your hair as soon as you stepped outside and a shiver went down your spine. The moon lit up your surroundings and you hesitated as you walked, but you were determined you had to do this. If not for solving the mystery, then for yourself. For soothing your curiosity and fighting this new fear of water. For proving to yourself that you were as strong as you knew you were. You took steady deep breaths as you made your way down to the lake, trying to get as close to the water around the common room as possible. When you arrived at what you thought was a good starting point you used the bubble-head charm as you had seen Leo do before he had jumped into the lake two years ago. The bubble that formed around your face was soft and you could still breathe as usual, which you assumed was a good sign. You let your robes fall, kicked of your shoes and took a step closer to the edge. You could have sat down and dipped your legs before going in, but you figured that doing so would only make you hesitate, so instead you took a swift step and pressed yourself away from the ledge: diving into the water. The water was cold around your skin and the sight was, at best, limited. You lit your wand and swam closer to the castle walls, following them until you saw the windows to the common room. You looked out into the lake, searching for the red thing you had seen from the inside, concentrating on taking deep breaths to keep yourself calm. Eventually, you saw it. You swam closer with your wand ready just in case, but when you got close enough to distinguish what it was you became slightly horrified, but also quite sad. The red object was one of the giant squid’s arms. The tentacle was scratched and bruised all over which made you wonder what had happened to the poor squid. You decided that bringing the arm up with you was the best you could do at this stage so that is what you did. You pushed the tentacle in front of you with the help of your wand until you reached the spot where you had jumped in. You let the tentacle float as you grabbed the ledge and pushed yourself out of the water. The bubble around your face popped as you finally felt the wind against your skin. You sat with your legs still in the lake when you heard a calm voice calling your name. You looked to where the voice had come from and saw professor Dumbledore standing around 70 feet away from you. The professor turned his head away from you and said with a slightly raised voice: ”I found her”.

Several teachers appeared behind the headmaster but you looked away before you could see which of the teachers it was. Instead, you focused your eyes on the tentacle that was still floating right next to your legs, observing the scratches as you squeezed water out of your hair. Several footsteps could be heard as the teachers got closer to you and soon you were scolded by the voice of professor McGonagall as you felt her picking up your robes and placing them over your shoulders. She couldn’t say much before she stopped abruptly in the middle of a sentence, probably because of a silencing gesture from Dumbledore, as he soon after started to talk.

”The lake is no place to be at this hour, miss Y/L/N, but I see that you found something.” He said and you took a deep breath, trying to gather courage to look up at the professor because you knew who would be standing next to him with disappointment in his eyes.

”I found it not far from the common room. Saw it through the windows.” You said quietly, still not brave enough to face the looks from the teachers. You squeezed out water from your hair one last time before you took your legs out of the water and stood up, and finally forcing yourself to look Dumbledore in the eyes, noticing Severus standing right behind him. The headmaster gave you a forgiving smile to assure you that you weren’t in trouble before he looked down at the tentacle and you looked over at the head of your house. His eyes were also fixated at the tentacle, almost like glue, and you could not help but feeling like he was deliberately forcing himself to only look at the tentacle. He didn’t even look up when Dumbledore started talking to him.

”Severus, will you take miss Y/L/N down to the dorms to give her a chance to change into something... warmer?” The headmaster said and the potions master clenched his jaw at the man's words without taking his eyes of the tentacle. Eventually, the cloaked man turned away and started walking back up to the castle.

”Y/L/N!” He called with annoyance as he walked and you realised he meant for you to follow him. You picked up your shoes and squeezed yourself between the teachers so that you could follow the man as he walked with determined steps, his cloak moving gracefully behind him as the wind picked up the fabric. You hurried to catch up to him and the two of you walked silently the rest of the way. When you stepped inside the common room the man stopped.

”Now get dressed.” He ordered, still without looking at you.

”Yes sir.” You whispered as you walked past him. You didn’t know if you had made him angry by jumping into the lake, but you figured that you would just do as he told you without any fuzz or further discussion to not make the situation worse. You walked to your dorm room and picked up some comfortable and warm clothes to wear under your robes before you went to the bathroom to dry your hair and change. When you were finished you walked out to the common room, seeing Severus still standing where you left him: waiting. The cloaked man glanced over to you as you entered, but did not look at you for long before he turned towards the exit.

”Follow me.” He said shortly and you obeyed.


	15. Anger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyoo! Trying to get back into writing and new chapters will come! I will not leave this work unfinished!  
> Currently inspired by a cute lil’ youtuber who loves Snape just as much as I do and I finally feel a little less strange about my love for him xD. Anyhow, if you know a good snape fic (other than this ;) ) please link it below!
> 
> ENJOY

The man made his way to his office with you close behind. He opened the door with a flick of his wrist and walked inside with determined steps. You followed the cloaked man with hesitation, observing the man as he walked to his desk and wondering what you were doing in his office. The professor rounded his desk and slammed his hands aggressively on the wooden surface. You jumped, this was not what you had expected.

”Do you have any sense of self preservation? You do realise you could have been killed?!” He shouted angrily. You were speechless due to the surprise.  
Severus Snape had scolded you before, but he had never yelled at you like this and if you were honest, you could now see why so many students were afraid of him. You stood silent for a few seconds, gathering courage.

”I do, sir.”

”Then why did you jump in that water?” He said, still angry.

”Because I wanted to help.” The man squinted his eyes at your answer. You could see that he was still filled with anger, but you were now determined you would not let his anger scare you away. You were going to help whether he wanted you to or not.

”Putting yourself in danger does not ’help’.” He said, still with a voice filled with anger.

”Haven’t I told you specifically not to do things like that?” He spat through his teeth. You remembered how he had told you the same thing after the bath incident and you felt bad for your actions. You had made him just as worried as you had then. Slowly, you walked closer to him, rounding the table so you stood on the same side as the cloaked man.

”I’m sorry, Severus.” You said, pushing your luck by using his first name. The man swallowed before he looked away and sat down on his chair.

”Go to the great hall, like the others. And stay there.” He ordered. You sighed and turned around to leave, but took a last look at him before you left the room. Severus Snape sat frozen with his eyes firmly on an empty wall, his face looking pained and angry. The guilt from making him this worried made you feel physically ill and you decided you had to make it up to him.

***

The rest of the night went by uneventful. You had arrived at the great hall to the sight of almost everyone sleeping. You had quietly made your way to your sleeping spot on the floor and tried to get some rest. It had been difficult with thoughts running through your mind but you had managed to at least get a couple of hours of sleep. The next morning was absolute chaos. All of the slytherin students were arguing, annoyed over not being allowed to go back to the dorms and over not getting any information. Professor Binns had tried his best to keep the students at bay until Snape arrived. The cloaked man walked into the great hall with his black cloak moving gracefully behind him. The students went quiet, awaiting answers or orders from their professor.

”Classes will continue as usual and the dorms are off limits until I say otherwise.” The man said slowly and sternly. Some students could be heard groaning with annoyance in the background. The man turned and quickly walked out of the hall. Behind you you heard Leo shouting your name.

”Hey! Y/N! I didn’t see you last night after we left the hospital wing. Where did you go?” He asked as he came closer.

”I guess you could say that I went for a swim.” You said and Leo raised his eyebrows.

”A swim?” You nodded.

”In the lake.”

”The lake?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?” He yelled as quietly as he could.

”You sound like Snape.” You said with a sigh as you rested your chin in your palm.

”Snape?!” Leos eyes widened.

”Yeah, he already scolded me for putting myself in danger.” You said as you shrugged your shoulders, trying to hide how bad you felt about it.

”Well yes you dumbass! We don’t know what happened down there yesterday. Whatever it was it could have killed you.” Leo said with worry. You knew he was right but you couldn’t change what you had done now, and you didn’t regret your decision to find out what that thing you saw through the window had been.

”I’m not dead though, am I? Don’t worry.” You said with a smile.

”The fact that you aren’t are honestly a miracle at this point.” Leo said with a sigh before he laid his arm around your shoulders, dragged you in for a hug and put his chin on the top of your head.

”Just don't get yourself killed, love.” He said and you laughed.

”I’m doing my best.”

***

You and Leo went to class as usual and the day seemed strangely normal. You managed to go through the two classes before lunch without anyone speaking a word about last night, but you knew that people wouldn’t be quiet once they all gathered for lunch, and you were right. When you arrived at your table everyone were more or less arguing about what had happened. Some were determined a student was behind it all, some thought it was an attack by dark wizards and some thought it was the making of a vicious beast. Almost no one blamed the squid though, because everyone knew that he was rather harmless, even letting some students tickle it’s tentacles with a stick and feeding it. You buried your head in your hands to not get involved in the discussion going on around you, and you managed to stay out of it by only replying with ’I don’t know’ and ’maybe’. You knew that telling anyone about what you had found in the lake would cause even more chaos, so you figured that just keeping quiet was the better option. You had tried to look up at your professor a couple of times, but every time you had laid your eyes on him he had his face turned away, talking to one of the professors beside him. His face still had a hint of anger written on it and you couldn’t help but feel like he was purposely avoiding to look your way. You knew that you were the reason he was in a bad mood and you felt bad for not being able to calm him down or make him relax, but you promised yourself you would try your best. You had caused it and you were going to fix it.

After lunch it was time for potions, so you prepared yourself for being as good of a student you could be to make up to Severus for making him worry as you walked down to the classroom. The door stood open and some students already sat at their desks when you arrived. You walked inside and sat down, making some small talk with Hannah before the professor came into the room, slamming the door behind him. Every student in the classroom jumped and slightly glared at the professor. You understood he was angry, but did he have to be so dramatic? The man started the class and you tried you best to memorize his every word. Luckily, you didn’t do anything bad enough to get points taken or detention which you at this point saw as very positive. Snape had, as suspected, ignored you the whole class. You figured that him ignoring you were better than him getting even more angry by your making. As class ended everyone left the classroom unusually fast, probably because of the professors constant glares. You sighed as you looked at the man standing at the front of the classroom, cold and bitter. He drove everyone away and made everyone scared with his cold behaviour. It made you sad knowing that his actions weren't the product of despising his students or other people at all, it was the product of him wanting to hide how much he cared. Of him wanting to hide his feelings. You stood still at your desk, tilting your head while you waited for him to finally look at you. When the classroom had been emptied the man slowly looked at you with annoyance. Not exactly knowing what to say, you brought up the first thing you could think of that wasn’t related to you jumping in that lake.

”Dumbledore asked me to clean your storage more… regularly. Have he talked to you about that?” You asked, sounding more timid than you wanted. The man sighed and looked away from you.

”No.” He answered shortly, sounding less angry than he looked.

”How about you talk to him, and I’ll see you later?” You tried, feeling quite nervous. The man looked back at you and gave you a nod. You took a deep breath, it had gone fine. He had calmed down a bit from the distraction and you thought it was good for him to have something new to think about. Maybe talking it out with Dumbledore would help. The headmaster had a way of shoving wisdom in your face even if you didn’t ask for it. You gave Severus a smile before you left the classroom.

***

Severus watched as his student walked out of his classroom. He observed how her hair shined from the light from the candles, not being able to stop the thought of how it would feel through his fingers. His eyes traveling downwards, looking at how her body moved when she walked. Severus looked away quickly when he realised what he was doing. This was extremely inappropriate, and he knew that. Even so, after seeing what she had thought about him, after talking to her, after making him… feel… he didn’t know how to behave anymore. Dumbledore that bastard was of course aware of everything and tried his best to push the two of them together without raising suspicion. Severus pinched his nose in frustration. How the bloody hell was he going to stay professional with her around?

***


	16. Stupefy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a little Snape in this one, but the next one/the one after that/or the one after that will be filled with drama.....
> 
> ENJOY

The weekend arrived and while everyone else were thrilled to have two days without classes, you were not near as happy about it. Sure, not being forced to wake up early or constantly being put in situations where you could have points taken from your house were quite nice, but it also meant no Severus. You got to see him in the great hall on weekends, but that didn’t give you any chance to even look at him for more than a couple of seconds, let alone talk to him. You had managed to get eye contact with him once that saturday, but otherwise nothing. The man looked like he was back to his own old self, emotionless and cold. No sign of that anger or worry he had displayed earlier, which was, probably, a good sign. He had calmed down after the two of you spoke, and you felt quite proud. You hadn’t heard anything from either Snape or Dumbledore about you basically having regular detention, which made you slightly nervous. Figuring that the two men needed time to talk it out before they brought the answer and solution back to you, you decided to try to not think about it too much. You were honestly not even sure what you wanted. The thought of cleaning Severus storage had both negative and positive sides. Negative because you dreaded cleaning: it was boring as hell and took hours. But positive because you got to spend some time with the man you longed for: to talk to him, to see him, to simply be in his presence. The weekend had ended with all Slytherins being allowed back in the dorms but, of course, without an explanation of what had happened. Dumbledore had only said at dinner that ’it had been handled’. You had pouted your mouth in annoyance when he had uttered those words; you wanted to know why you had found that tentacle in the shape you did. But Dumbledore being secretive wouldn’t stop you from getting to know the truth. You would break into his office or smuggle veritaserum in his cup if you had to. Sure, just asking was also an option, but you had to be prepared to do what needed to be done to still your curiosity. When Monday finally rolled around and classes were back on your daily schedule, you were relieved. No more desperate tries to get a glimpse of your professor, you would be able to see him up close in potions. With light steps you jumped out of bed and got dressed in your uniform while Millie looked at you in envy.

”How are you so happy? It’s Monday.” She sighed as she slowly crawled out of her bed.

”Well rested, I guess.” You lied. Knowing you would see Snape at breakfast just in a couple of minutes and then for both first and second period made your blood rush and the adrenaline pumping. You walked over to the mirror, fixing yourself up as much as you thought necessary before you dragged Millie along with you to breakfast. When the two of you walked into the great hall Leo sat at his usual place, looking unusually bored. Millie and yourself sat down on either side of the boy and the two of you soon understood why Leo looked as bored as he did. Pansy sat on the opposite side of the table, babbling on about something to do with unicorns. At first you were startled when you heard the word unicorn due to the ’official hogwarts business’ Severus had been on, but you quickly realised she did not talk about anything near unicorn blood when she also said the word ”stuffie”. You looked over at Millie, who now had the same bored facial expression as Leo. You almost choked on your laugh that was trying to force itself out when Leo started to slide further and further down his seat with his eyes rolling in an endless loop. Pansy didn’t seem to notice until the laugh you had held in burst out when Leo’s knees hit the floor. The girl only managed to give Leo a side eye and preparing to yell or say something nasty before he quickly got up and grabbed both you and Millie by the robes.

”The hag saw me! Run!” He yelled as he basically dragged the two of you of the bench. You felt as busted as Leo from laughing so you instinctively joined Leo in his running away from Pansy. You came to a quick halt when you reached the doors.

”Leo! Waffles!” You shouted at him as Millie ran by you, pointing back to the table with a sad pouted underlip. Waffles were not something they served every day, so leaving the great hall without even taking one was a big deal, especially since neither you or Millie had had the time to eat anything. The boy stopped, looked back at you and then at the table before his eyes widened.

”Forget the waffles! Run!” He yelled with both laughed and panic. You looked back to see Pansy, with wand in hand, walking angrily towards you.

”Petrificus Totalus!” She yelled as she pointed her wand your way. You managed to dodge the spell, only to see Millie freeze up and fall to the ground. You might not be the best at potions, but dueling and casting spells were childsplay to you. Without standing up you dragged your wand out of your robes and shot a little blue light at Pansy without even thinking about what you were doing. Pansy flew backwards as she was hit by the blue light from the stunning spell, dropping her wand and landing on the floor: unconscious.

”Enough!” Echoed Dumbledore’s voice through the great hall and you looked up at the man as you slowly stood up with your hand still firmly around your wand. Despite Dumbedore’s stern eyes on you, yours were not on Dumbledore for long. Instead they fell down to Pansy’s unconscious form on the cold stone floor. All of the students around you looked at you with big eyes, not believing that spells just had been cast in the middle of breakfast in front of all the professors. You yourself were more surprised that you had been able to knock Pansy out completely. Your stupefy spells were usually not this powerful and you looked up at professor Flitwick as you took a big breath.

”I should get an outstanding in charms for that one.” You said as you breathed out, making a gesture towards Pansy while trying to hide how proud you actually were. Some students could be heard giggling and you could see a little smile slowly appearing on Flitwick’s face. You watched as both Dumbledore and Snape stood up and made their way around the table before they walked down closer to you. They were joined by madam Pomfrey when she walked down to move Pansy, and you felt quite guilty when she gave you a disappointed look. The first one to reach you were professor Snape and he grabbed your arm forcefully as he did.

”How hard can it be to stay out of trouble?” He spat before he pushed you so that you were facing Millie, Leo and the halls outside.

”Let’s take this in my office, shall we?” Dumbledore proposed, laying his hand gently on your shoulder. You closed your eyes. Shit, this might have bought you a ticket straight out of Hogwarts.


	17. Greater good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEYOO! New chapter!  
> Q: do you guys want the main character to become more badass? I feel like if she is too shy and so on she wont quite fit into Slytherin you know, and I’m all for girlpower
> 
> Anyhow,  
> ENJOY

Dumbledore sat down slowly behind his desk, leaving you standing insecurely at the top of the little staircase that led up to the main part of his office. Severus stood beside Dumbledore, observing but not speaking. The two men had their eyes fixed on you, looking as you stood awkwardly, not knowing where to put your hands or eyes. Your eyes lingered on the phoenix that sat with pride on its stick close to its owner. The bird tilted its head as it looked back at you and you had a strange feeling that it understood more than you might suspect. The phoenix’s black eyes stared at you and you decided to look down at your feet instead, both to get away from all the eyes that were placed on you, but also in an attempt to hide from the shame of being kicked out, which was bad as it was, but even worse when it happened in front of professor Snape.

”Incidents like this is something we take very seriously, Y/N. It is strictly forbidden to use magic in such a way against another student. This kind of behaviour is according to the rules punished by either suspension or expulsion.” The headmaster said seriously and you clenched your jaw in frustration as you thought back at your actions. It made you angry that you were the one standing here instead of Pansy. Sure, you knocked her out so she technically couldn’t stand here at the current moment, but you were defending yourself and your friends by pure instinct. She started it, not you. You took a deep breath and tried to think positively. Best case scenario: you only get suspended for a few weeks or so instead of expelled.

”However, there have been very few students who have been able to do such a perfectly executed and effective stupefy spell as you just did, miss Y/L/N.” Dumbledore continued, and you looked up at him. The man was smiling at you. Wait what?

”I think both Severus and I can agree that such a talent belongs here at Hogwarts. Especially since we could all see that it was for the greater good.” He raised his eyebrows towards you and you got the hint. Yes, getting Pansy to shut up was indeed for the greater good. You breathed out in relief. Was he actually serious? They weren’t kicking you out? You carefully looked over to Snape and he did, to your surprise, look quite relieved himself.

”I think some house points would be in order.” The headmaster smiled and your eyes were quickly torn away from the cloaked man.

”10 points to Slytherin for exellent performed magic.” Dumbledore said with a wink and you smiled back at him. This had gone so much better than expected and you were honestly not even sure this was real.

”You can go back to the great hall and get yourself some waffles.” He said playfully as he gestured towards the door and stood up again. You gave out a little laugh before you nodded towards the headmaster. You glanced over at the head of your house, wanting him to say at least something. From both your own experiences and rumors that went around, Severus was not the one to be quiet when it came to handing out punishment. The fact that the man hadn’t said a word made you worry. Anxious that he didn’t agree with Dumbledore's verdict; that he instead wanted you to receive an actual punishment. Your eyes met, making your heart skip a beat. His eyes didn’t express any anger, but something you would interpret as frustration... or maybe sadness? You were not sure. The man looked overall relaxed, no clenched jaw or frown as he usually had when he was displeased. As you started to feel your cheeks getting warmer from the eye contact, you quickly turned to walk down the stairs. You thought you had gotten past blushing by the professor by now, but apparently not. Severus made you confused, he had looked relieved at first, but what was that last thing? With easy steps you walked down the stairs and then to the door before stopping. You took a breath to slightly calm yourself before turning and giving the two professors one last smile before walking out the office. You couldn’t help the big smile that forced itself onto your lips as you closed the door behind you. You weren't kicked out, instead you got house points from the headmaster himself. You could not even imagine how the others would react. Pansy and her gang will be furious. You laughed as you stepped onto the gargoyle’s platform that would take you down to the corridor. Just as the gargoyle started to turn you could hear Dumbledore's low voice from inside the office.

”You need to talk to her, Severus.” Was all you could hear before the gargoyle sealed the way back to the office. As the gargoyle stopped to let you out to the corridor, you hesitated. What were they talking about? You understood that ”her” most likely referred to yourself, but why would Dumbledore insist that Snape needed to talk to you? About what? Your curiosity were killing you and you considered going up to the office again. You knew the password. What had Snape answered? What had been said after you were out of reach to hear? You shook your head in an attempt to force yourself to clean your head. Spying on a conversation between the headmaster and a professor was too far, you knew that. After being so close to being kicked out you were not going to risk anything. You walked off the platform into the corridor, giving out a slight sigh of frustration. Being curious was the worst, you felt like a child that couldn’t keep their nose out of others business. You forced yourself to walk away, remembering Dumbledore's words about the waffles. Yes, waffles. Right. With fast steps you made your way to the great hall. It was still open and a lot of students were still sitting at the tables, eating breakfast as nothing had happened. Madam Pomfrey were nowhere to be seen, neither were Pansy, Millie or Leo. You knew that as soon as you took a step inside the great hall, all eyes would be on you, but you really wanted some of those waffles, so you did what every proud slytherin would; You took a confident step inside the great hall with your head up high. As you suspected, all heads turned towards you as you walked, more elegant that you usually did, to your table. Whispers could be heard all around you and you heard some of Pansy’s friends asking each other ”what is this bitch doing here?”. Just for the fun of it, you sat down close to them.

”What did I miss?” You smiled at them with your best I’m-currently-killing-you-inside-my-head smile. They all clenched their jaws, obviously angry, but also with a hint of defeat. Or maybe it was fear.

”Nothing.” Said one of them in a quiet voice before the blonde boy looked down at his breakfast again.

”How the hell are you here? We all thought for sure you would be kicked out.” Said another slytherin and your eyes were torn from the blonde boy.

”Haha, yeah so did I. Turns out I earned some house points instead.” You said, quite proud. The other slytherins stared at you, some with a slightly open mouth, before they all, except Pansy’s friends, burst out in laughter. Some clapped and you couldn’t help but feel great about how the situation turned out. You grabbed some waffles and listened as some of your housemates reacted the incident, adding more drama and lines than had actually occurred. You almost spat out your drink as one of your housemates who pretended to be Dumbledore said:

”Here Y/N! Take this rare and valuable object that I have no idea what it does as a price! Oh! And take Snape too! He is all yours! And here! House points!!” What had he just said? You felt your face getting redder, luckily all the other slytherins were too busy laughing to notice it. You covered your face with one hand and continued eating your waffles with the other. You managed to calm yourself before you felt fake Dumbledore put his arm around you.

”Too close to home?” He whispered before he stood up, made another joke, then left. Your breathing became heavy as you watched the boy leave the great hall. What the hell did he know, and how?


	18. Puttney

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally starting to produce some material... 
> 
> ENJOYY

”Y/N. Calm down. I’m sure he doesn’t know anything. It will be alright.” Hannah tried, but you were panicking.

”How the bloody hell am I supposed to calm down? If he tells anyone I won’t be allowed anywhere near the professor! And if he knew… he could…” you stopped yourself. You hadn’t told Hannah about the unicorn blood or the other forbidden ingredients and you weren’t going to now. You needed to calm down. If anyone knew what Severus actually had in his possession he would get fired, and it would be your fault.

”So what if someone knows you like Snape? It’s not like it’s against the rules to have a crush.” Hannah said while she placed her hand on your back in an attempt to comfort you. You buried your face in your hands and let out a grunt.

”Who was he, anyway?”

”Adrian P-something... I think. I don’t know, never really cared about learning his name. He wears a quidditch uniform sometimes.” You sighed and Hannah frowned.

”Do you mean Adrian Pucey? The chaser for your quidditch team?” She asked with a tone you weren’t really fond of.

”How should I know?”

”Merlin's beard…” Hannah sighed and looked away in disappointment. You never understood the craze around the school's quidditch teams. It was quite boring now that Gryffindor always won and if you were honest, the students on the Slytherin team weren’t there by talent if you put it that way.

”From what I’ve heard, Pucey is a nice guy. I’m sure you could just... _talk_ to him.” said the hufflepuff girl, the last part with a much less innocent tone than she usually talked in. You looked over to her with squinted eyes.

”...were you just suggesting I should do something other than just talk to him?...” you asked, eyes still squinting at Hannah.

 ”No.. ehm. Just... do what you Slytherins usually do, you know?”

”What we usually do?” Hannah looked quite embarrassed as you spoke.

”You mean you want me to threaten him? Jesus Hannah, are you sure you’re a hufflepuff? Maybe I should go to Dumbledore and ask to put that hat on you again.” You laughed.

”No! I just… you guys are very good at getting what you want. Isn’t that one of your traits?” She said and you knew she didn’t mean anything negative.

”Well, I guess it is. But he’s also a slytherin.”

”Yes, but you are… well we all know now that you are very talented in taking people down.” She smiled with encouragement. You laughed at Hannah's words. People who underestimate hufflepuffs should really watch their backs. You looked at your watch and sighed, your first class started in just a few minutes.

”I guess we should go.” You said and Hannah nodded before the two of you grabbed your things and took a shortcut through the halls up to the charms corridor. You walked into the classroom, giving Flitwick a smile as you sat down. The teacher gave you a nod before he started the class as usual. Since charms were one of your best subjects, the class went by fast and smoothly even if it was a long class. When it was over and you were about to leave, Flitwick called your name right before you stepped out of the door. With a not-so-smooth turn you looked at the professor.

”Yes professor?”

”Keep up the good work and maybe it will be an outstanding.” He said with a smile.

”I will. Thank you, professor. See you tomorrow.” You smiled with slight surprise at Flitwick and he nodded before you finally left the classroom. You waved to Hannah before you walked down to the dungeons to leave you things before heading up for lunch. As you walked through the common room you saw that Adrian guy sitting on one of the couches, talking to his friends. You took a deep breath, you needed to do this.

”Ey, Puttney!” You called over to him and he raised his eyebrows as he looked over at you and his friends started to quietly laugh.

”It’s Pucey, actually.” He said with slight hurt that he didn’t manage to hide.

”Whatever, I need to talk to you.” You said, gesturing with your hand for him to come over. He sighed and got up from the couch before walking over to you. You grabbed his robes, dragging him further away from his friends so that you would be out of range for them to hear.

”What was that thing this morning?”

”You mean when you stunned Pansy and got dragged to the headmaster's office but somehow managed to get both house points and time enough to get back and have breakfast?” He asked sarcastically and you rolled your eyes.

”I was referring to the ’too close to home’, part.” You said squinting at him.

”No slytherin student have gotten away with something like that with Snape on the watch before.” Adrian said, squinting back. You didn’t have a good comeback that would clear you so the two of you just stood there, squinting at each other with suspiciousness.

”Adrian! We’re going to get lunch. You coming?” Called one of his friends and the slytherin boy broke your eye contact to look back at his friends.

”Yeah, I’m coming.” He said before turning his head back to look at you.

”Keeping my eyes on you, Y/L/N.” He said before he joined his friends that were walking out of the common room.

”You do that, Puttney!” You called after him and you could hear him yelling just as he couldn’t be seen anymore:

”It’s Pucey!” You smirked over his reaction. The guy didn’t know anything about Snape after all, he was just suspicious over how you got out of trouble and you couldn’t blame him, you also thought it was unreal at first. With a sigh of relief you made your way up to the great hall, seeing Adrian and his gang as they walked ahead of you. When you entered the great hall you gave out another sigh of relief as you saw both Leo and Millie sitting by the table. You quickly walked over to them and hugged Millie from behind.

”Y/N!” Said the both of them in surprise and Millie hugged back the best she could from the strange angle.

”How are you feeling? You got quite the hit.” You asked as Leo and Millie shuffled over so that you could fit between them on the bench.

”Good, the question is how did you manage to not getting any punishment? People are saying you even earned house points?” Millie asked as you sat down and you could see Leo leaning in with the same curious facial expression as Millie had.

”I don’t know myself. Dumbledore just said that my talent belonged here and that was it.” You said.

”...and then he gave me points for shutting her up.” You continued, quieter. Leo almost choked on his laughter but managed to hold it in and you looked over at him, having a hard time not laughing yourself when you saw how hard it was for Leo. Millies mouth had become a line, almost like she was annoyed, but you could see the tears slowly forming in her eyes from keeping it in.

”Anyhow. How’s Pansy?” You tried to be serious. You were actually somewhat concerned, you hoped you hadn’t hurt her.

”She’s fine, love. That one got a thick head.” Said Leo before he ruffled your hair with one of his hands.

”Leo! I told you not to do that!” You yelled as quiet as you could, one hand placed on top of your head to stop Leo’s access to your hair and punching him on the arm with the other. The three of you ate your lunch in peace. No drama or yelling around the table, probably because Pansy wasn’t here to make a scene. You glanced up towards the teachers table, seeing both Snape and Dumbledore sitting there, hopefully enjoying their lunch. The two men were talking to each other and you smiled as you looked back at your food. They looked just as normal, which you saw as a good sign. You took a few more bites as you casually looked around you. Of course, when your eyes reached Adrian and his friends you could see him sitting and staring at you with suspicion. ”What?” You mimed to him and he gestured with two fingers from his eyes to you as to say he was watching you before he looked away. You had to watch out for that guy, at least until this settled down. When the three of you were finished with lunch you stood up and walked out from the great hall, making sure not to look back over at the teacher's table, even if you wanted to, in case Puttney was watching. Luckily, he wasn’t in your year which meant you wouldn’t have to see him except from in the great hall and during possible encounters in the common room.

”Hey, can we wait here a little? I need to talk to Hannah when she comes out.” You said and pointed to the stair that was located just next to the great hall.

”Sure.” Leo said and sat down, almost taking up the whole stair with his arms and exaggerated manspreading. Millie and yourself rolled your eyes before she joined him while you kept standing in front of them. You just needed to tell Hannah that that guy didn’t know anything, and then you could be on your way. Hannah soon came out, joined by some other hufflepuffs. Hannah raised her eyebrows when she saw the three of you waiting for her, but she quickly understood why. You nodded towards the opposite wall and she gave you a nod of understanding. As you walked past her to reach the wall you had nodded towards, Hannah turned to her friends.

”I’ll see you guys in the common room.” She said to the hufflepuffs and they nodded and waved before continuing, slightly struggling to get past Leo as he took up the stairs.

”Did you… _talk_ to him?” Hannah asked as she reached you, sounding like you were discussing a secret murder or something.

”Yes. I talked to him Hannah. He doesn’t know anything. Uncomfortably suspicious though.” You sighed and Hannah lit up.

”That's great! Just ignore him and it will work itself out.” She said with a smile, patting you on the arm.

”Yeah, I guess.” You sighed before looking over at Leo and Millie. They sat with curious expressions on their faces and you knew the longer this took the more they would try to drag information out of you.

”Anyway, I’ll see you later?” You smiled to the hufflepuff girl. She nodded and gave you a wave before leaving, with the same struggle to get past Leo as the other hufflepuffs had had. You slowly walked over to Leo and Millie, preparing yourself for questions.

”What was that about?” Leo asked with raised brows and a cheeky smile as he gathered himself up to not take up all the space anymore.

”Quidditch, actually.” You said, not entirely lying. Leo and Millie raised their brows.

”Quidditch? Since when do you care?” Millie asked.

”Since Hannah pointed out that I don’t know anything about our team.” You sighed and Leo stood up before putting an arm around you.

”We will help you, love. I would call myself somewhat of an expert on the matter.” He smiled and you looked at him in confusion.

”Since when are you interested in sports?...”

”Y/N. Our team is a collection of some of the hottest slytherins since that shit Flint left.” He said, looking down at you like it was the most obvious thing. You sighed, at least he was honest.

”Can we just go down to the common room now, or do you want to tell me all about how much you love abs here?” You said with a slightly dry voice. Leo laughed before letting you go and gesturing for you to lead the way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly laughed a little while writing this. The mistake with Adrians last name wasn’t intentional the first time, I just genuinly didn’t remember his name hahah. Thought it was a fun thing so I rolled with it ~


	19. Grindylows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO PEOPLE! new chapter hell yeah ;))) I am on a roll again and lets hope it continues! Please follow me on instagram (@maja_graves) to show support: I would love if you messaged me there with suggestions so I dont fall back in that dreadful pit of no inspiration. ;_; <3
> 
> Anyhow, ENJOYY SOME SNAPE

Leo and Millie filled you in on all the players, from names to position to, which you found quite weird how Leo knew, their favourite candy. They took their turn to give you information between teachers sentences and classes, causing slytherin to lose 5 points during transfiguration because Leo was just too excited to keep quiet. When dinner rolled around they were still going, talking about strategy and how many matches had been won by what team. They had gone from filling you in on the slytherin team to telling you about every team an hour ago and you couldn’t really be any less interested in what ravenclaws beater Duncan Inglebee liked to do in his freetime. Leo went on and on the entire dinner, and you had a hard time pretending to even listen as this point. You tried to focus on your food and your friends words, being thurow to not look up at the teacher's table or to where you could hear Adrian sat. When you finally left the great hall and came down to the common room you slouched down into one of the couches. Leo and Millie had finally stopped talking about quidditch to do their homework, but you didn’t really feel like joining them in studying. You knew you needed to, especially since McGonagall seemed to love giving out homework more than anything, but you felt like your brain was working overtime. You sat quiet while the others studied, almost driving yourself crazy from overthinking everything that had happened these past weeks.

”I’ll go to the library.” You said quietly before standing up and walking out the common room. You walked through the dungeons cold halls, trying to somewhat clear your head before heading upwards. As you passed Professor Snape’s office you lingered, looking at the door, wondering if he was inside. You shook your head and continued forward. This crush on Snape really started to cause you some problems. With easy steps you jogged up the stairs to the first floor and headed forward to the library. The halls up in the main castle was just as dark as the halls in the dungeons, only lit up by a few wall lanterns. The library was fairly empty, only a couple of students and madam Pince were still left. You carefully walked over to one of the shelves and dragged your finger over the book spines, not wanting to get madam Pince’s attention. You were not sure what you were looking for, so you grabbed a book at random. ’A Vampire’s monologue by Amarillo Lestoat’ stood with big letters on the front. No thank you. You put back the book and continued walking alongside the high bookshelves, searching after something that literally wouldn’t bore you to death. Unfortunately, Hogwarts weren’t really famous for having interesting books in their library that wasn’t about school subjects. You sighed and grabbed a copy of your current textbook in transfiguration in defeat and sat down with a thump. You opened the book and tried to at least teach yourself something, but you didn’t manage to come far before madam Pince said with a firm voice:

”The library will close in five minutes!” You closed the book and slid down further on your chair. Well this was a waste of time. You stood up slowly and put back the book before heading to the doors. Madam Pince were glaring at you as walked past her, her eyes making you feel uneasy. Somehow her looks almost made you feel guilty, even if you hadn’t done anything. You hurried out of the library and figured that if Leo and Millie were still studying you could go to bed early. With a sudden halt you realised you had an examination in potions tomorrow that you hadn’t studied for. You turned around and almost ran back to the library. When you walked inside, with two minutes until closing time, madam Pince gave you the angriest look you had ever seen on a human being before. You looked down at the ground as you passed her, walking slower than you wanted to. When you arrived at the shelves you knew the potions book you needed stood on, you quickly scanned the shelves. When you saw the book you grabbed it and rushed back to madam Pince, once again walking slower than you wanted to.

”I need to borrow this.” You said while reaching her the book.

”We do not let students take out this book at the current moment.” She muttered and looked at you with suspicion.

”Are you serious?” You said without thinking.

”Very much so. Now, get out. We are closing.” She said, almost gritting her teeth. You walked out empty handed in defeat, slightly panicking over how the examination would go tomorrow now that you only had your standard textbook as help. You rushed down the halls to the dungeons and into the common room, seeing Leo and Millie still studying transfiguration. You took a deep breath to gather yourself, being out of breath from almost running the whole way back. Leo looked up at you when he heard your unsteady breathing.

”I see the library was… exhausting?” He asked and you shook your head.

”Forgot to - study potions.” You said between breaths. And Leo’s eyes widened.

”Shit!” He said, obviously having forgot it too. Millie, however, seemed calm. Probably because she somehow always were prepared, or just really good at not caring. You and Leo hurried to your dorms, grabbing your textbooks and notes before meeting up again where Millie sat. You compared your notes, realising that the both of you needed to pay more attention. The two of you tried your best to help each other while Millie sat calmly with her transfiguration homework, looking up at how the two of you struggled from time to time. Millie finished her homework after about an hour, and then tried to help the two of you the best she could even though she herself wasn’t the most confident at potions. When the clock turned half past nine, the three of you sat quiet, staring down at the page before you.

”I give up.” Muttered Leo.

”Yeah sorry guys, I don't know either.” Millie said, scratching the back of her head. You were so confused, you knew something about this wasn’t right, but you couldn’t figure out what was the thing that didn’t make sense. You had seen this potion before, and you knew for a fact that you had gone through how to do it last year in class. There was however, one thing left you could do to get answers, and the thought that you even considered it made you feel quite nauseous.

”Wait here.” You said as you grabbed your book and stood up.

”Where are you going?”

”To ask someone that knows.” You said with more bravery than you felt before walking out the common room. Were you actually doing this? ...Yes you were. Your heart beating so hard it felt like it was going to either give you a heart attack or rip itself out of your chest as you walked further down the halls of the dungeons. Most of the lights had been put out, so you had to light up your wand to see where you were going. When you reached your destination you hesitated. Heart still beating in an unhealthy rate. You took a deep breath to gather courage before knocking at the door. Soon, the door flew open to reveal a very annoyed Severus Snape.

”This makes no sense.” You said and held up the book before the man managed to yell at you.

”Do you know what time it is, Y/L/N?” He said bitterly and you saw how one of his eyes slightly twitched.

”I do, professor. But -”

”You can come with your questions tomorrow. In class.” He said before starting to close the door. Without thinking you shoved your foot in the way, he knew just as well as yourself that asking tomorrow wasn’t going to happen because asking for help during an examination wasn’t an option. The man looked up at you with surprise, raising his eyebrows.

”This. Does not. Make. Sense. So please. Help.” You said, pointing at the page, slightly regretting how forward you were but you really needed his help. The man looked at you for a good 5 seconds before, with much and obvious irritation, opening the door to let you in. You walked inside, letting out a relieved sigh. When you heard the door close behind you, you turned around and handed him the open book. The cloaked man took the book away from you with more aggression than you thought necessary, but figured that he had all the right to be annoyed at you for disturbing him this late. His eyes scanned the page you had pointed to earlier before looking up at you. Again, with raised eyebrows.

”And the problem is..?” He asked.

”The colour is wrong. In the end.” You said and the man tilted his head slightly.

”Either, something is wrong in the instructions or you do it differently.” You continued, trying to think back at both classes from last year and that night. You knew what you had seen that night. You remembered the colour and it was sure as hell not that. But had it been when you brew it last year? You couldn’t remember. The man squinted his eyes, seemingly not understanding what you were talking about.

”When I…” you paused to take calm yourself. Thinking back was not something you gladly did.

”You gave me a calming draught. And it was not the same colour as the instructions say.” You said, biting your lip after you finished to keep it together. The man sighed.

”What you got was stronger. Not the same as this. Now leave.” He said as he shoved the book back in your arms. Did he really need to be like this? You knew he wasn’t as mad as he pretended to be.

”One more question, professor.” You saw how the man clenched his jaw, probably annoyed over how you always asked more questions than he was comfortable with.

”Why was the tentacle so beaten up?” The man looked away from you and stayed quiet for a while, contemplating what he would answer.

”The headmaster told you it had been handled.” He eventually said, obviously not happy about the question, but when was he ever?

”Yes, but that was not my question.” The man looked at you. Clenched jaw. Hard eyes. Damn he was good looking. His eyes scanning you up and down for a second before they were once again torn off you. He walked over to the door and opened it before looking back at you and you got the hint. If you didn’t leave he would forcibly kick you out. You stepped out of his office feeling slightly disappointed. You thought the two of you had come further than this.

”Grindylows.” He stated and you turned around, shocked over that he actually answered, even though he apparently felt a reason to make you leave before doing so. You smiled at him before nodding.

”See you tomorrow, professor.” You said before starting to walk away, knowing that this was all you were going to get out of him.

”Y/L/N.” He said as you were mid-step and you froze before turning to look at him, which you did in much confusion. This was out of the ordinary.

”You will clean my storage on Wednesdays and Fridays after dinner. You will receive house points for your efforts.” He said sternly and you felt your mouth open slightly from the surprise. He didn’t wait for an answer, instead he shut the door: leaving you standing in the corridor, staring at what was now an empty hallway


	20. Well done

You walked into the common room and then to the couches where Leo and Millie still sat with a blush on your face that was impossible to hide.

”Why are you blushing? Who did you go to?” Leo asked with frustration, probably from you leaving so abruptly.

”We should just follow the instructions and it will be fine.” You said, purposely avoiding both Leos questions and eyes.

”Y/N?” Leo tried but you ignored him, your warm cheeks not getting any less red.

”I going to bed.” You said with an undertone of panic as you packed up your things and left for your dorm. You heard how Millie and Leo sighed before they said goodnight to each other as Millie started to jog after you.

”Hey! Wait up!” She called after you and you slowed down a little bit for her to catch up. You couldn’t run from her, she was your roommate after all.

”Did something happen?” She asked with worry in her voice. You felt bad, you didn’t want to lie to either one of them, but you couldn’t tell them about your feelings for the potions master.

”I went to Snape.” You stated, starting off with the truth.

”You WHAT?!” Millie almost screamed.

”I went to Snape and asked him. Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Millie looked like she had seen a ghost before her face turned from shock to doubt.

”Then.. why are you blushing…?” She asked and you felt your cheeks getting redder if that was even possible at this time. You needed to come up with a good lie, and that fast.

”He gave me detention. It was quite embarrassing really.” You said while avoiding Millies eyes, feeling that this was actually a good excuse to why you would go to this office more often from now on. You heard Millie sighing beside you, hopefully buying your story.

”We will never win the house cup if you continue making him angry, Y/N.”

”I know. But we wouldn’t win it even if I was flawless. We all know who Dumbledore’s favourites are.” You said bitterly and you heard Millie giving out an agreeing sound. The two of you walked into your dorm, basically dropping your books on the floor before making yourselves ready for the night. You crawled into your bed, still with a hint of that blush remaining. This was going to be an interesting week.

***

You sat down in your usual spot beside Hannah, both of you having blank eyes and emotionless faces that showed everyone around you that this was not going to go great. You rubbed your eyes in an attempt to wake yourself up enough for your brain to remember the few things you had managed to study last night. When the examination began you struggled for the first few minutes, but as you felt that you got on a roll, the time flew and you felt like you might actually pass the examination with flying colours, but that feeling didn’t last long. As you added the last ingredient the liquid inside the cauldron in front of you started bubbling in a strange way. Being sure it would explode - you stepped back, staring with slight fear as the liquid changed colour, but nothing. The liquid stopped bubbling and you looked at it in confusion, then to the page with the instructions, then back to the liquid. Your jaw dropped and your eyes became wider. Had you actually done it? You looked around the classroom, everyone seemingly still concentrating on preparing the potion. You looked back at the now ready potion before looking up at your teacher who stood still at the front of his classroom, scanning over the students. With slight hesitation you raised your arm, causing the cloaked man's eyes to focus on you. He stepped down his spot before making his way over to you, looking annoyed, and you knew he thought you were going to ask a question, but oh no he was in for a surprise.

”I’m done, professor.” You stated and the man looked down in your cauldron and then up at you with surprise and you couldn’t have been more proud than in that moment.

”Well done.” Said the cloaked man before he walked back to his spot in the front. You sat down with relief and blushing cheeks, getting some jealous looks from your classmates. Maybe it had just been your imagination, but you thought your professor had looked quite proud of you. The thought of making him proud caused the hairs on your arms to stand up in excitement, and you had to focus your breathing to calm yourself down. Words couldn’t express how happy succeeding in potions made you. The subject had always been the most challenging for you of all the subjects in school, but now it started to look brighter for you. You sat down and waited until the time ran out for the other students, only a few others managed to finish a proper calming draught potion like yourself. Snape startled many of the unfinished students as he called out that the time was up. Their faces frowned in disappointment over themselves and you felt strange. Last year you had been one of them. Not being able to finish the potion. Not being able to breathe out in relief. You gave them a pitiful look before you cleaned up after yourself, making sure to bottle up the potion with the right label before heading out from the classroom. You looked back at Snape as you walked through the door. He was scolding a poor gryffindor boy for using the wrong form of an ingredient, not noticing your longing eyes that lingered on him. You had continued walking, eyes too focused on your potions master to notice what came your way. A muscular shoulder bumped into yours, causing you to drop your things on the stone floor of the dungeon halls and dragging your eyes away from the professors form.

”Hey!” You said, annoyed at whoever had walked into you, or, whoever you had walked into. You looked up at the person who the shoulder belonged to and, of course, there stood a slytherin boy with dark hair looking down at you.

”Puttney.” You muttered, crossing your arms and the boy rolled his eyes.

”At this point you are saying it wrong on purpose.” He muttered back and you shrugged your shoulders.

”Sounds cuter than Pucey.” You said before you bent down to pick up your things. The boy stood still as you picked up you things, making you quite annoyed. He could at least be a gentleman and help.

”Thanks for the help.” You said sarcastically as you stood up again with your things back in your arms. The boy was startled by your words, almost like they had snatched him out from a daydream.

”Oh, eh- I-I’m sorry.” He pushed out in slight panic and you raised an eyebrow. The boy’s face had turned a bright pink which reminded you of your own colour when it came to Snape. The cloaked man walked out of the classroom and disappeared behind Adrian, probably to head back to his office. You were still shocked that the slytherin boy hadn’t asked you why you weren’t paying attention on where you were walking, and you didn’t want to give him any clues.

”Are you still ’keeping your eyes on me’, or what are you doing here?” You said, squinting at him. You knew that he wasn’t going to have potions here anytime soon since this was the last period before lunch.

”I- ehm- I was just-..” Adrian started, scratching the back of his head with one hand and pointing towards the potions classroom with the other, cheeks getting even pinker. You couldn’t stop the little giggle that came out. The boy looked mortified.

”Calm down, okay. I don’t think you’re stalking me.” You smiled at him, making him breathe out in relief.

”Ehm. Actually, it was nothing. Wanna go eat?” He said, sounding like the old Adrian, but still with a hint of pink on his face. You raised your brows.

”I… guess.” You said, quite surprised and very confused. You hadn’t got the impression that he liked you very much from the whole ’keeping my eyes on you’ thing, but you guessed he was only trying to be polite after he absolutely ignored to help you pick up your things. The boy led the way and as he moved from his previous position, you saw how Severus had lingered just a few steps away from the classroom door, hidden from your sight behind the slytherin boy. The man started to walk again just after you had noticed him. Had he been… listening? You watched the professor’s cloak gracefully float behind him as he walked further and further away from you before you turned to walk after Adrian. What was going on with everyone today?


	21. Lady

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EYYO, DRAMA
> 
> ENJOY

You sat down at lunch, Adrian forcing you to sit beside him since Leo and Millie wasn’t in the great hall yet. You listened to how Adrian talked; He was loud and joked around a lot, making many students around the table laugh. Somehow, you quite admired his ability to make so many people like him. He was, after all, said to be a ”nice slytherin” according to the other houses and it was not many that had that good of a reputation. You rested your chin in your palm, supporting your head as you tried to glance at the teacher's table without Adrian noticing. Severus hadn’t arrived yet and you sighed in disappointment before turning your eyes down at your food. You suddenly felt a strong arm around your shoulders, startling you slightly since Leo, who usually did that, wasn’t around.

”What are you sighing about?” Adrian said with a smug smile, seeming extremely more confident now than he did down in the dungeons. You looked at him with one raised eyebrow, feeling quite uncomfortable with him touching you, but just as you were about to ask him to remove his arm, you noticed Snape entering from behind the teacher’s table. The man walked a couple of steps before your eyes met and your cheeks turned pink as your heart started beating faster from having the mans black eyes on you. Severus eyes traveled to Adrian, and you realised how the situation must look like to your professor. Adrian's friends cheered when they noticed your pink colour, thinking it was from the slytherin boy’s touch, making the situation even worse. You saw Severus jaw clench before you turned to Adrian to push his arm off of you, but someone beat you to it.

”Hey!” You heard an annoyed voice from behind as Adrian's arm was ripped from your shoulders. It was Leo.

”Don’t touch my lady, mate.” Leo continued with a threatening voice and your face turned the ultimate shade of red. What the hell was he saying? You turned to look at Leo. He stood right behind you, facing Adrian with a buffed up chest. Leo actually looked kinda scary, he wasn’t a small guy, but neither was Adrian.

”Oh? your? Maybe you hadn’t noticed that she is sitting with me.” Adrian said, just as threatening, as he stood up to face Leo. Was this actually happening right now? Your face that had recently been bright red was now white - terrified that this might get Leo in trouble if he didn’t calm down, because you knew the threats from Leo’s side was far from over.

”You touch her again, I’ll break your arms, Pucey.” Said Leo through his teeth, almost spitting out Adrian's name. Oh god this day had gone downhill fast. You looked at Severus in panic; the man was now seated beside Dumbledore, looking at the two boys with eyes you had never seen on him before. His eyes were darker than they used to be, almost burning with rage. Your heart started to beat even faster, not because of embarrassment or excitement that was usually the cause, but from worry. You had to stop Leo before -

”CLAYTON. PUCEY. DETENTION.” Echoed between the walls and the whole great hall became silent. Severus now stood up behind the table, hands slammed down at the wooden surface. The two boys stared at their professor with big eyes, not believing that the potion master had intervened in a fight over a girl. Leo was the first one to come out of shock, and he smiled as he did.

”Let’s go, love.” The boy said and looked down at you. You stood up, figuring that getting Leo out of here was the best option. Leo laid his arm over your shoulders as you climbed over the bench, just like Adrian had done earlier, only this time you were actually okay with the person who did it. You looked at Severus one last time before you and Leo started to walk towards the doors. You were almost begging the potions master to calm down with your eyes, and it seemed the cloaked man got your request. The professor turned away from your pleading eyes, instead focusing his anger on Dumbledore who was… giggling? You looked away from the professors, not wanting your eyes to linger too long as that would cause suspicion, especially from Adrian. Just as you turned back your head to face forward, Leo buried his face in your hair, snuggling and kissing you by the ear and you realised what he was doing. He was making sure Adrian would back off, and you loved Leo for not selling it short, but doing that did not only make sure that Adrian would think you had a boyfriend, it also made sure Snape did as well. When the two of you were out of the great hall Leo let you go.

”What a dickhead.” He muttered and and you looked at him with a smile before you shrugged your shoulders.

”Nice performance though.” You said, being genuinely impressed, and he looked at you with confusion.

”Performance? I meant every word.” He said seriously and you looked at him with slight panic, but it didn’t last long as Leo started laughing.

”I did mean every word. You are my lady. Just not in a romantic kind of way.” He winked with a big smile before he grabbed you and gave you a hug as you sighed out relief.

”But hey, what if I had been into him? You would have blown my chances!” You said with a fake pout.

”If you had been into him, you wouldn’t have looked that uncomfortable by him touching you.” Leo laughed and you nodded in agreement.

”Besides, you’re already into another guy.” Leo said with a grin and your eyes widened. You looked at Leo in terror, frozen in your movements, which made Leo almost choke from laughter and you saw a tear forming from the laughing as he continued speaking.

”You thought I couldn’t tell you had a crush on -”

”NO. DON’T.” You yelled and pressed your hands on his mouth to shut him up. Leo looked at you with raised eyebrows, still extremely amused over your reaction. You removed your hands and quickly dragged him along through the corridors to the spot where you and Hannah now usually met to talk about.. sensitive things. As you reached the little room at the end of the corridor you let go of Leo.

”How did you -” you started with panic written all over your voice and face.

”I have known you since we were 8, Y/N. I can tell when something is up.” He smiled.

”But I never thought you would fall for Snape, that one was a shocker.” He said, strangely casual.

”But - h-how- ” you started stammering, panic still in full bloom, not understanding what gave you away.

”Well I started getting suspicious when he showed genuine concern for you when the dungeon was shaking, you know? And you seemed oddly comforted by his presence. Then there is the thing with you being happy after every detention with him. It was quite alarming until I saw you looking up at him several times in the great hall aswell, smiling and blushing and all. It became fairly obvious by then.” He explained, shrugging his shoulders as he finished. You turned around and sat down with a thump on the couch, sliding down until the angle you were in almost choked you. If Leo easily could see all of that, and puzzle it together, someone else would eventually do the same. Having Hannah in on the secret was almost too much, and now Leo? This was not good. And if Leo knew, you were sure you wouldn’t be able to keep Millie in the dark for long. Leo sighed before walking over to the couch, sitting down beside your slowly decaying form.

”Ey, get up. It’s not the end of the world. I know far more embarrassing things about you.” He smiled as he patted you by the knee. You gave him a nasty side eye, warning him that if he said one more thing he would join the ghosts. With his hands up, the boy laughed, not wanting to make you angry. You slid back up the couch, so you sat like a normal human being.

”Funny though, he seems to fancy you right back.” Leo said said with a smug smile as you made yourself comfortable among the decorative pillows.

”What did you just say?” You asked, not sure you had heard correctly.

”He seems to fancy you.” Leo repeated. With a fast movement you slapped him on the arm.  
”It’s not funny, Leo.”

”I’m not joking, Y/N. He literally just gave me detention for implying you were my girlfriend.” The boy laughed.

”No, he gave you detention for threatening to break Adrian's arms.” You said, trying to convince both Leo and yourself.

”Is that so? Then.. why did he give Pucey detention?” The boy looked at you with raised eyebrows, trying to prove his point.

”For causing a scene.” You stated after a while, not daring to hope Severus would actually do such a thing. Sure, it had been times when you thought he had been acting weird, protective and jealous. But at the end of the day, you only saw your relationship as slightly more friendly than the ones he shared with other students. Hope for something more had always been there, especially after all the times you had been so close to him. Close enough to feel his skin under your hand, close enough to feel the muscles under his snug clothing, close enough to feel the warmth radiate from his body. You crossed your legs, desperately pusing down the tingling warmth that came with thinking about the cloaked wizard. The fact that he had come to your rescue several times had only fed your hope, but you had to see past your own wishes to try and see the reality. The reality was that he helped a student in need. That was that. At least that was what you dared to believe. Leo’s words had made you clench your jaw. You had always been angry at your own brain for choosing a man that was so out of your reach, but as Leo spoke it sounded almost like you had a real chance to be loved by the man you so deeply desired.

”Even if it was true,” you began,

”he would never make a move now that you made our ’ _relationship_ ’ clear to the entire great hall.” You muttered at the boy.

”He wouldn’t make a move anyway. One: you’re his student. And two: I’m pretty sure it’s illegal, love.” Leo sighed, giving you the hard truth.  
”Doesn’t mean he can’t fancy you, though.” The boy quickly added with a wink. His comment did not help for one bit, but you didn’t want to show Leo how much it actually affected you, both negatively and positively, so you decided to drop the conversation. You didn’t want to force yourself to actually think about the logistics around your impossible dream. You knew it was never going to happen. You knew it was all hope.

”Can we go?” You asked as you stood up, not wanting to discuss any of this further, or frankly, at all.

”Alright.” Leo said before looking at you. You saw the boys eyes turn to you with his usual happy expression, but that was before he saw yours. Your jaw was still clenched from trying to keep yourself together, and Leo’s expression changed drastically as he realised that his words had upset you.

”Hey, Y/N -” he started while pushing himself off the couch, but you cut him off.

”Let’s not talk about this again. Okay? And... don’t tell Millie.” You said, giving the boy the best smile you could manage. He looked at you with slight sadness, but he knew that this was not the time to joke around anymore or go against you. The boy nodded, accepting your wishes, before the two of you walked back through the halls.


	22. Squid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! I'm back. <3 Still in the middle of writers block but I am trying the best I can!  
> And finally, another chapter. I promise I wrote an entire chapter that I really didn't like and it was a serious struggle for me. It was cheesy in a bad way and just too depressing at some point, I didn't want you guys to read something that I personally thought was shit... so I deleted everything and redid it and I honestly think this version turned out A LOT better, even if it took me about a month all together heh. 
> 
> Anyhow, ENJOY
> 
> (Unfortunately it is a short one this time...)

The rest of the day went by rather slowly. After your talk with Leo you felt quite hopeless, which resulted in you being unusually withdrawn and quiet. Millie had asked Leo if something had happened, and Leo had told her not to worry and give you the space you needed. Millie had nodded quietly before changing the subject, engaging Leo and giving you space to participate or stay out of the conversation, depending on what you wanted at the moment. You had sat silently beside them, picking at your food with your fork: barely eating anything. Their voices had floated together with all the others that filled the great hall, almost creating a bubble around you that separated you from them. Too afraid of making everything worse, you had left the great hall before the others, without a single glance at the table where you knew Severus was seated. You didn’t want to see him. You didn’t want to remind yourself how ridiculous you were for even having hope for the two of you to become anything else than teacher and student. You didn't want to remember how Leo had said that the man seemed to like you back, because if he did, this impossible relationship would be even worse. You had always known that it actually wasn’t going to go anywhere. That you would eventually fall for someone else and forget about your silly crush on Severus Snape, but the more you thought about it you realised that you had never felt this strongly for anyone before, nor this long, and you wondered if these feeling would ever go away. You tried to shake these thoughts out of your head when you started to feel choked up from the, unfortunately, very present anxiety that rapidly took over every inch of your mind and body. You needed something to distract yourself with that wasn’t school related, so you made your way outside to the lake. The weather was getting warmer, so you didn’t need to grab your cloak from your dorm, which was a relief. The light breeze caught your hair as you walked out the doors, whirling your hair around behind you as you walked down to the edge of the lake. You kicked your shoes off and took off your socks, placing them on top of your shoes before sitting down and dipping your feet in the water. The green tinted water felt cold on your skin, but you quickly got used to the temperature, and it was honestly quite therapeutic. You wiggled your toes, feeling the water move around your ankles, making patterns on the surface. Suddenly you saw something big and red approaching, soon a slimy tentacle wrapped itself around one of your ankles. For a second you thought the giant squid would drag you down, but when the tentacle started to tickle you under your feet you knew the squid were back to its friendly and calm behaviour. You took your foot that the squid hadn’t taken hostage and tickled the squid right back. The squid let you slip your foot out of its grip and presented you with more tentacles to tickle, even pusing some out of the water so you could reach with your hands. You laughed as you would tell that the squid enjoyed the feeling, and you thought the poor creature deserved some love after what had happened. The squid and yourself played for a couple of minutes, and you had completely forgot your worries when your playtime was interrupted. 

“Y/N!” called a voice and you looked back towards the castle, seeing Severus walking towards you with his wand out. Your body had froze from the shock of seeing the professor, and especially from hearing him call your first name, and the squid had noticed something was off. The creature had started to slowly lower its tentacles, moving away from you and the feeling of it moving stiffly down your feet made you turn back your attention to the creature. You did not want it to believe something was wrong or that it was in danger so you forced yourself to relax and you wiggled your toes playfully again and luckily, it worked. The squid stopped moving away and you tickled it softly to assure it even further that everything was alright. It moved upwards again and placed a wet tentacle right in your lap. You gave out a laugh and patted the tentacle with your hand before turning your head to Severus who had almost closed the entire distance. The mans face showed slight horror as he looked at the tentacle in your lap, he apparently wasn’t the biggest fan of the squid.

“Hello, Professor.” you greeted him before you swallowed hard, Leos words hitting you again.

“What are you..?” the cloaked man began, but didn’t finish the sentence as he was too busy observing the squids movements around your limbs.

 “I just.. wanted to clear my head.” you said smiling at him and his eyes moved from the tentacles to your eyes and you saw him breathing out before putting away his wand. Somehow he was always the one to find you, wherever you were, whatever you were doing. You smiled at the thought that he indeed kept an eye out for you, that he felt that you were important enough to follow when you walked out of the great hall and something didn’t seem right. 

“Shouldn’t you be holding the detention now, Professor?” you asked, moving your eyes back to the squid, trying not to smile too much.

“Go inside, Y/L/N. You’re going to catch something.” He said bitterly and you pressed down the urge to laugh. You tickled the squid a little more before sliding your legs out of its soft grip and standing up, leaving it by giving the creature one last tickle on the tentacle that had been placed in your lap. You grabbed your shoes and socks in one hand before taking a few steps up towards the castle. When you walked past Severus you turned around, but continued taking small, now backwards, steps towards the castle. You smiled at him and his eyebrows raised a little, probably wondering what you were doing.

“If I do catch something, Professor, I’ll come to you for some more of that pepperup potion.” you said confidently before turning back towards the castle. Your cheeks were flustered, but you weren’t embarrassed. You realised that despite what Leo had said, nothing except yours and Severus feelings mattered to you. If the professor had feelings for you like you had for him, why would you force yourselves not to feel them? You hurried up the hill, hearing Severus being close behind. When you came inside, the stone floor were even colder under your feet than the water had been and you looked down at yourself, seeing how the end of your skirt where slimy and wet from the squid's tentacle, along with most of your legs. You sighed as you thought about what spell would remove possible staining on your skirt while Severus caught up to you. The cloaked man glanced over you as he passed, but he didn’t slow down his pace.

“Take a shower, Y/L/N.” he called over his shoulder and you smirked.

“Give them a hard time, Professor.” you called back and you thought you heard a small chuckle from the wizard before he disappeared down the stairs. You took a deep breath before taking out you wand, casting a spell at your skirt, and the slime was gone. You looked closely at the edge of your skirt and there were no signs of slime nor staining. You gave yourself a mental pat on the shoulder before putting away your wand and heading down to the dorms for a shower. You hoped Severus would keep both Leo and Adrian working hard the entire evening, preferably with something like scrubbing cauldrons by hand wich you, unfortunately, knew by experience would cause your arms to feel like sensitive rubber the entire next day. You decided to study after a well needed, long and warm shower. Transfiguration homework was the worst, but exams were coming up and you had to do your best this year. You sat up with the homework for about three hours, and there still had been no sign of Leo or Adrian. You struggled to keep yourself from laughing by the thought that Severus indeed was giving them a hard time, and you went to bed feeling much happier than you had earlier today.


	23. Nervous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! New chapter! If you follow me on instagram you might know that I accidentally deleted almost this entire chapter without having saved... so yeah. I had to rewrite more than half which sucked really hard since I feel it didn't turn out as good the second time. Anyway, here it is, and I hope you like it!
> 
> ENJOY

Wednesday. You took a deep breath as you sat at the edge of your bed; legs dangling of the side with the tip of your toes just reaching the floor. Today was the day. Warmth started creeping up to your cheeks from the thought of it, but you managed to force it down. After dinner it was time for your “regular detention”, as you had started to call it in your mind; cleaning Severus storage. You didn’t know how this actually would work in practise, but you figured that since it was for extra house points and whatever hidden agenda Dumbledore had you would be allowed to leave whenever you wanted, depending on if you needed to do more homework one day than the other. As long as you got it done, you didn’t think it would be a problem, which calmed you down quite a bit. You had two days a week after all, and the storage wasn’t that dirty since you had cleaned it not long ago on your actual detention. You had decided that the negative thoughts that had brought you down yesterday had no place in your mind anymore. You would do what you wanted with who you wanted, no matter what the surrounding people thought about it. And: why would they need to know? You stood up with somewhat shaky legs from being nervous, but you ignored it to the best of your abilities, thinking it would eventually go away if you just pushed through. After getting dressed you walked up to the great hall, seeing Millie and Leo already sitting by the table. You sat down beside Millie, purposely avoiding Leo. You weren't mad at him, he had after all saved you from an awkward situation with Adrian, but his words still made themself known as a small echo in the back of your head. You knew you had to let it go eventually, but it wouldn’t do him any harm to sweat a little. An elbow pushed at you from the side and you looked over at Millie.

“What?” you asked.

“I said good morning.” she smiled, raising her eyebrows at you.

“Oh, sorry. Morning.” you smiled back. Millie had gone to the great hall before you had even woken up, so now was the first time you saw each other today despite being roommates.

“You were up early today.” you stated as you grabbed a pancake with your fork from the big plate before you.

“Yeah, I had to finish up homework.” she said, shrugging her shoulders. Silence fell on your group for a while, and you knew the two of them had talked about you being a little… annoyed at Leo. From Millies behaviour you knew Leo hadn’t told her why exactly it was tense between the two of you, because if he had she would have more of a paniced or disgusted undertone depending on what she thought about the professor. You sighed and bent forward so that you would be able to see Leo.

“Morning Leo.” you said as casually as possible. The boy looked at you with slight surprise, but he seemed happy you took some initiatie to talk to him.

“Morning, love.” he smiled.

“How was detention?” you asked, trying to hide the smugness but unfortunately without much success. Leo chuckled.

“Fine. It was easy.” he said, shrugging his shoulders, obviously lying. Millie and yourself raised an eyebrow at him before Millie quickly hit one of his arms with the back of her hand. Leo grunted in pain before caressing his arm with his opposite hand.

“Alright, it was torture. Happy?” he sighed and both you and Millie smiled, trying to press down your laughters.

“He had us scrubbing all the first years cauldrons. With a bloody TOOTHBRUSH.” Leo continued with a clenched jaw. Severus had indeed given the boys an extremely hard time and you couldn’t help your laughter anymore. Leo gave you a nasty side eye as you laughed, but he didn’t say anything. Millie patted him slowly on the back, somehow managing to suppress the laughter by pressing her lips together as tightly as possible. You pressed a hand over your mouth to keep quiet, not wanting to be too rude. It took a couple of seconds before you managed to calm yourself down and stop laughing, following Millies lead and instead pressing your lips as tightly as possible to stop every possible sound to come out. You took a deep breath, calming yourself down even further. Your eyes moved from Leo up to the teachers table as you breathed, seeing professor Snape sitting behind the table with his eyes on you. You managed to give him big smile without loosening up your lips before shyly looking down again. As usual, you felt your cheeks getting warmer but this time it wasn’t as bad as it had been before. Neither Millie nor Leo seemed to notice that you had become any redder, which meant you hadn’t shifted that much in colour despite feeling the warmth. You breathed out and focused on finishing your breakfast as Leo continued whining about his arms hurting. You saw Adrian sitting further down the table, looking quite angry. The slytherin boy spat something at one of his friends who also looked displeased. You looked around and saw that most of Adrians friends seemed to be in a bad mood, and you figured that the boy let his anger from the detention out on his friends, which you thought was somewhat of an overreaction. Leo was a dramatic and emotional person but not even he let something like that cause him to be outright disrespectful towards others. Sure, Leo complained, but he would never almost spit in neither yours nor Millie’s face just because he was bitter about detention. You took one last bite from your panncake before asking Millie and Leo if they were finished. They nodded and stood up with you before leaving the great hall. You glanced at Adrian as you passed, seeing that he was now watching you. When he saw your eyes turning to him he quickly looked away, doing his best to seem uninterested. You rolled your eyes before walking out the doors. The three of you walked down to the dungeons and collected your things before heading up again for the first class of the day. Millie wasn’t in the same class as you on wednesdays, so you and Leo had hugged her goodbye in the common room. Leo and yourself had some awkward silences the next hours, but you both did your best to keep up a conversation and make it less strained between the two of you. Millie joined you by lunch again and the rest of the day went by fine despite you getting more and more nervous the closer you came to the end of the day. When you walked into the great hall for dinner you were practically hyperventilating and Millie started to look at you with slight worry. You sat down by the table, trying to shut out everything except the voices of Millie and Leo as well as the food in front of you. You realised that slightly panic in the great hall and forcing yourself to focus on food were about to become a habit, and you didn’t know if you yourself should be worried about your own sanity if you kept doing this.

“You look like you’re constipated, Y/N. You sure you’re feeling alright?” Leo asked with a smile and you smiled back at him with extreme sarcasm.

“I wish.” you muttered, thinking that being constipated would be better than feeling like puking from being this nervous.

“Oh no, diarrhea?” Leo asked with faked concern.

“Ew! no, Leo.” you said, looking at him with disgust. The boy laughed and you were honestly relieved that the two of you were almost back to normal again, even if Leo sometimes was just outright disgusting. You looked down at your food, somehow not feeling very hungry anymore. You sighed, forcing down some food even though it made you even more sick to your stomach.

“Y/N, could you help me with charms after dinner? Flitwick gave me extra homework.” Millie asked as she poked at her food with her fork, seemingly not having a big appetite either.

“Extra homework? Why?” you asked, forcing more food into your mouth.

“I-...I might have set a gryffindor on fire.” Millie said, trying to sound casual but failing horribly. You and Leo raised your eyebrows, neither you nor Leo knew if you should be impressed or laugh.

“It was an accident.” She added quickly when she saw the faces the two of you made.

“Sure.” Leo said sarcastically which cased Millie to look angrily at him with squinted eyes. The boy held up his hands in the air, making Millie roll her eyes before turning to you.

“So, will you help me?” She asked and you realised you had to take this conversation now on why you would disappear sometimes.

“Maybe later, I have some things to do first.” you said, hoping that they wouldn’t ask further questions, but you knew that was naive.

“What things?” Mille asked, frowning slightly.

“Some things for Dumbledore.” you said, trying to make it sound more normal than you knew it was. You had hoped that you could pretend to have actual detention, but either Millie or Leo had been with you to all of your classes the past few days and you hadn’t messed up enough in class to earn detention, and they knew that.

“For.. Dumbledore? The headmaster?” Leo said with frowned eyebrows, almost trying how it sounded coming out his mouth.

“Yes, Dumbledore.” you confirmed, speaking with exaggerated articulation. The two slytherins raised their eyebrows at you, obviously wanting an explanation. You thought about how you would phrase it, because you wanted to tell them the truth as much as possible, but also keep Severus as far from this conversation as you could manage.

“I’m on cleaning duty.” you continued, figuring that they didn’t need to know _what_ you were actually cleaning.

“That.. sounds extremely boring.” Millie said, and you saw their curiosity fade a little.

“Why would the headmaster make you do that?” Leo asked, still very confused about the fact that you would do something for Dumbledore.

“It’s.. like a job.” You said, realising how strange it sounded first when it came out your mouth.

“A job? You get paid?” Millie asked, now slightly squinting. You were not the only one that thought this sounded quite strange.

“No, I get house points.” you explained, not making the situation any less strange.

“That sounds like prostitution.” Leo stated, making the two girls look at him with an expression that told him that if he didn’t shut up he would end up in the hospital wing. Millie rolled her eyes in disappointment before giving the boy a hard smack in the back of his head, causing Leo to grab his head with both of his hands, slowly caressing where Millie had hit him while pouting his lip in a sad expression. Millie ignored him and instead turned him her back to shut him out as much as possible from the conversation before speaking.

“So it will be a regular thing?” she asked and you nodded.

“I just hope that I maybe can earn more points now than I manage to take away.” you said, making Millie look at you with pity. She didn’t ask anything more, but instead tried to change the subject, to your relief. The three of you talked a little longer before you stood up and told them you would leave a little early since you knew you weren’t going to be able to force any more food down. Millie and Leo had barely eaten half of their food so they just nodded as a response, which you found slightly calming since you really didn’t want them to see where you were heading after this. You walked out the great hall and down to the dorms, washing up a little before sitting down on your bed in an attempt to pull yourself together. Your legs were again shaking and your whole body felt weak, which you knew were from this enormous nervosity. You didn’t really understand why you were so nervous, you had cleaned Severus storage before on actual detention and that had gone just fine. You closed your eyes, knowing you needed to calm yourself down. _Breathe in, breathe out_. You focused on your breathing, taking deep and slow breaths until you felt that your legs had stopped shaking. You slowly opened your eyes before standing up and forcing yourself to start walking towards Severus office, even if it might be a little too early. Figuring that if you just got there and started, everything would come naturally and go well, just like it had previous times. As you walked through the common room you saw that most slytherins had come back from dinner, letting you know that Severus most likely also had come back from the great hall. You walked through the dungeon corridors before arriving at the potion master's office. You looked at the wooden door, hesitating slightly before knocking. Sounds could be heard from inside the office, confirming that Severus indeed had come back from dinner. You stood outside the office, waiting, growing more and more nervous for every second that passed. The continued sound of cauldrons made you wonder if he was purposely making you wait or if he just hadn’t heard you knocking, but you were too nervous to knock again, not wanting to come across too eager. After what seemed like forever, but was probably only a minute, the door opened.


	24. Severus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY VALENTINES! So, new chapter on valentines day, and what is more fitting for valentines than some more Severus? I think this is the closest to a "Valentines day special" as I'll come for now, and when you read it you will understand why ;)
> 
> ENJOY SOME FLUFF <3

The professor looked at you with his black eyes a couple of seconds before opening the door wider to let you in, making your heart beat uncomfortably fast. You slowly walked past the professor into the office with somewhat shaky legs as you focused on keeping your breathing as steady as possible. The potion master's office looked messier than usual and you noticed that he had almost double the normal amount of cauldrons stacked on eachother placed around the room. Many cauldrons were nothing strange, but this seemed like overkill even for Severus Snape. As you looked around and walked further into the room you realised this must be all the cauldrons Leo and Adrian cleaned. You gave out a giggle as you thought about the two boys, with a toothbrush in hand, scrubbing away.

“Leo and Adrian?” you asked with a smile while looking back at your professor who were closing the door.

“You really did give them a hard time, professor.” you added as the man turned to look at you.

“As instructed.” The man said casually as he started walking towards his desk. You took a deep breath, you could barely believe he actually said that since, despite his casual tone, he outright said he did it because you wanted him to. Your cheeks blossomed up as usual, making you look away from the man. The cloaked wizard of course knew about your habit of blushing around him by now, since it was not a subtle colour your face turned into, and therefore there were not really any point in you trying to hide it, but you couldn’t help it. It was almost a reflex to look away. Standing your ground and looking the professor in the eyes as your face became a nice and bright shade of red were almost straight out of your nightmares. It gave you a direct throwback to the time when you used to fuck up in potions because you were too distracted by daydreaming about the professor, and as a result: receiving detention and embarrassing yourself in front of both the entire class AND Snape. Showing yourself with a red face to the wizard felt embarrassing as you thought about it, even though the professor never had shown any sign of caring whether you were your normal colour or… slightly/extremely more red. The professor’s words had not helped making your heart beat any slower and you stood still in the middle of the office, pounding heart, red cheeks and unsteady breathing, listening to the professor picking up a quill and write something on a parchment. You focused on the silence that had fell between you and the professor, calmed by how strangely alright it felt. The silence didn’t feel awkward, as silence often otherwise had a tendency of doing. It was okay not to talk. You turned to look at the storage, thinking you should probably start with what you were actually here for. The door stood ajar, making you wonder if the man had been in and out the storage a lot today since he hadn’t properly closed the door. You walked over, opening the door fully before walking inside. The shelves were once again covered in dust, but this time only with a thin layer. Bottles were, just like last time, standing a little all over the place without an obvious order. You sighed before grabbing a cloth and starting to clean of the bottles, being extra thurow with the ones you saw were not frequently used since they had a tendency to become disgustingly sticky. You heard as the professor started walking around in the other room, probably cleaning up, for a couple minutes as you continued cleaning off the bottles on the higher shelves with the help of the ladder that you now also had dusted off. The sound of cauldrons and glass being put down on a table made you pause your cleaning. You stood still, carefully listening to the sounds that came from the office, unfortunately too curious to continue doing your job. The room fell completely silent a few moments before steps could be heard getting closer and closer to the storage. You realised what were about to happen, so you turned away from the door and picked up a bottle just as the potions master entered the storage. You turned your head to the professor and looked down with fake surprise at him from the ladder, as if he had just abrupted your hard work. The man barely looked at you, but instead searched the shelves with his eyes, eventually pointing next to you.

“The pearl dust.” he said, making you raise your eyebrows. You turned your head to the shelve the man had pointed to, remembering that you just had cleaned off an incredibly sticky little bottle labeled “pearl dust” that were now placed neatly and visibly on the shelf. You smiled slightly at yourself. Before you had cleaned it off you could barely see neither the white shiny powder inside nor the label which, in your opinion, were quite beautiful. Proudly you grabbed the bottle, took a few steps down the ladder and reached out your arm to hand the professor the bottle. Severus raised his hand, grabbing the bottle while also accidentally caressing some of your hand. The man hesitated, making your cheeks feel like they were on fire. Neither of you moved away from the touch, instead forcing your eyes to meet. His eyes weren’t cold as usual, but not angry or happy either. The man averted his eyes, not giving you enough time to interpret what they were saying before taking the bottle out of your hand and walking out the room. You breathed out, realising you had been holding your breath the entire time as you leaned back to support yourself with the help of the ladder. Had that actually happened? You closed your eyes, hearing Severus continue with whatever he was previously doing as you lifted your hands to cover your still burning face. That the man had hesitated to break the touch were not an exaggeration your silly brain had made up, but reality. The touch had lasted for at least a good 5 seconds which was enough time to make you scream from happiness and embarrassment on the inside. You gathered your thoughts, focusing on your breathing before walking up the ladder and continue cleaning. The rest of the bottles took about an hour to finish cleaning and you sighed out in relief as you put down the last one. You walked down the ladder, still hearing the potions master working in his office. From what you had heard he was in the works of making a potion, much like that one time after you had discovered the unicorn blood. You hesitated to walk into the room, knowing you both would relive the previous moment you had shared, but you knew you couldn’t hide from him in his own storage forever. With slow steps you walked out the storage, into the office. The man stood behind his desk with a small cauldron in front of him, bottles of ingredients scattered around it. You looked at him for a few seconds, being almost hypnotised by his smooth movements as he added something and stirred the potion around.

“Never really understood how you made it look so easy.” you said with a smile, making the man look up at you. That you were bad at potions were common knowledge at Hogwarts, but despite yourself not being gifted in potions you still admired the art. You recognised that it needed a certain finesse that you, unfortunately, didn’t possess. The man looked at you, squinting his eyes somewhat before speaking.

“Come here.” he ordered, making your heart skip a beat. You hesitated, but did as he had said and slowly walked over to the man, who took a step to the side so you could stand where he just had.

“Take up that bottle.” he instructed, nodding to a bottle next to you on the table. You grabbed the bottle with a slightly shaking hand, just now realising he was going to make you finish his potion.

“Open it.” the man continued and you did, unfortunately with more of a struggle than you had wanted since your hands had seemed to forget how to interpret the signals from your brain into movement, making you blush from slight embarrassment.

“Slowly pour until the potion shifts colour.” he said as you finally managed to get the cork out, almost starting to shake even more now that you knew you could fuck this entire potion up. You took a nervous breath, feeling how even your breathing were becoming shaky. You heard the man beside you sigh before you felt an arm around you and a hand lightly grabbing your wrist. The cloaked wizard had moved closer, making the gap between you disappear as his limbs were placed close to yours to help guide your movements.

“Calm down.” the man said as he made you lift up your arm to bring the bottle over the potion before stopping to make sure you did as he said, but it was easier said than done to calm down. Especially now. He was now close enough for you to feel his breath against your ear and his chest against your back, making you aware of the calm pace it raised up and down. You focused on the mans breathing, forcing yourself to breathe in the same pace, actually making yourself calm down slightly. When the man could feel that your shaking subsided, he made your hand tilt, causing the content of the bottle pour out. You made sure you didn’t tilt your hand too much even though you could feel the pressure from the professor’s hand, after all, he had said slowly, and you planned on doing as you had been told. After a while you saw the potion starting to slightly change colour, which you knew was the que to stop. You tilted up the bottle to stop the content from pouring out without Severus even needing to give you a hint, nor help, and you looked up at him to make sure you had done as you were supposed to. The man had a slight smile on his lips, barely noticeable, but it was there. You looked down at the potion again, seeing how the colour changed completely into a shiny white colour as steam swirled out from the cauldron. The man removed his grip around your wrist, but didn’t move away, making you once again extremely aware of how close you were actually standing.

“What does it smell like?” Severus asked as he observed you closely. You tilted your head, finding his question quite strange.

“Nothing… what is it supposed to smell like?” you asked with frowned eyebrows, wondering if you actually had managed to ruin the potion despite Severus previous smile.

“Depends.” he said shortly before moving away. You sighed, what kind of answer was that? Severus picked up some of the bottles that stood on the table before putting them back in their place without looking at you, giving you the hint that whatever moment you had had was over. You rolled your eyes before walking to the door. That man gave you a slight headache sometimes from his shift in behaviour. One second he was cold, the other affectionate, and then back to cold. However, you knew why. The man was as aware of how inappropriate it would be if the two of you became any closer than this, probably even more aware than you were. You opened the door, looking back at the man who paused when he heard the wooden door swing open from across the room.

“Sever-” you started, but quickly realising that saying his name wouldn’t ease up the situation, making your hand instinctively move up to cover your mouth as the man looked up at you with slightly raised eyebrows.

“I’m sorry.” you stammered out, feeling the embarrassment once again wash over you. It wasn’t the first time you had called him by his first name, but this was the first time you did without him calling you by yours first. The man didn’t seem to care much, as he looked down again. You sighed, thinking that whatever you did you somehow managed to embarrass yourself.

“Severus is fine.” you heard the man say more quietly than he usually talked, causing your mouth to slightly open in surprise before it turned to a smile. He had just given you permission to call him by his first name. Holy smokes.

“I’ll… see you tomorrow then, Severus.” you said, trying out how it sounded. You didn’t expect an answer, since he usually didn’t give you one, but today were a day of surprises.

“Good night, Y/N.” the professor said, making you walk out the door with that familiar shade of red on your face.

 


	25. Gabriel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEYA. NEW CHAPTER. Jesus it has been a while. But now it is here. 
> 
> ENJOY

You walked through the dungeon halls, trying to grasp everything that had just happened. You thought about how close he had stood, how you had been able to smell and feel him, how he had held his arm so close to yours and how your hands had touched. The warmth that spread from your stomach and downwards made you take a deep breath. For your own good you had to put these thoughts to the side, even though they were almost addictingly intoxicating. Walking into the common room while having your mind and body filled with lust for your professor were not ideal, you knew several people that would be able to tell the moment you walked in that something had just happened. You looked down at your feet as you walked closer to the common room, trying to think about something that would have the opposite effect on you than the one Snape had. With your eyes still down at the ground you stopped in front of the entrance to the slytherin common room, still not being able to think of something other than Snape. You sighed before giving yourself small slaps on the cheeks as to wake yourself up, which unfortunately didn’t help much. After standing outside the entrance for about two minutes you decided to go inside, despite still having a slight shade of red and your mind occupied with the cloaked wizard. You figured that if someone saw you standing out here, hesitating, it would look even more suspicious than if you just walked in with a blush. With heavy steps you entered the common room, trying to make yourself look as natural as possible but probably only making yourself look even more unnatural and suspicious. You passed several slytherins who sat in the couches, luckily too busy talking to even notice your form walking by. When you finally reached the hall to the girls dorms your body started to relax a little, only a few meters until you were back in your dorm. You closed the distance between you and the door to your dorm and put your hand on the handle before realising that Millie were most likely inside and that she would have a lot of questions if she saw the blush on your face right after you were back from your new “job”. You stood still with your hand still on the door handle, listening to see if the girls inside were still up, but not hearing anything. The lack of noise suggested the girls were already asleep, making you slightly less anxious. Slowly, you opened the door, trying your hardest to not make a sound as you let yourself in. You breathed out in relief as you quietly closed the door to your dorm behind you, seeing your roommates already being tucked in for the night. The faint green light that shone through the windows lit up Millies sleeping form, and you smiled with slight guilt. You loved that girl, she was one of your best friends, and you felt bad for hiding everything involving Severus to her. You wanted to tell her, like you would have if had been just any other boy, but you didn’t have the luxury of being in love with an uncomplicated teenage boy. You sighed as you walked over to you bed before throwing of your uniform and putting on your pyjamas. With one last look on Millie you crawled down in your bed, thinking that even if it took you keeping secrets from her and Leo, they would both want you to be happy. They would understand.

“GOOD MORNING!” Screamed a voice and yanked you out of your sleep before you felt something heavy land on top of you. Millie had made a short, and not very elegant, swan dive on top of you and your bed, possibly in an attempt to crush you to death. The girl laughed before pushing herself off of you, but not leaving your bed. Instead, she rolled over to the side and crawled in under the duvet, snuggling up to your back. You rolled your eyes, slightly annoyed over Millies way of waking you up, but when you glanced back at her you couldn’t help but smile as you saw her happy and carefree expression. You never understood how Millie could be so energetic in the morning, being a morning person were not something you would describe yourself as.

“How was work yesterday?” she asked, making your eyes widen slightly as you remembered Severus.

“Ehm, fine. Just, you know, different.” you pushed out, probably too fast to seem unsuspicious. The girl raised an eyebrow and you knew you had to calm yourself if you should be able to keep them from the truth. To your surprise, Millie let it slide.

“I hope you earned us a lot of points. Apparently some seventh years got 20 taken away yesterday.” she sighed with annoyance, but you sighed in relief. For once it wasn’t you that had got points taken away, and it felt nice not being the one everyone glared at for fucking up. You glanced up at the quietly ticking clock you had standing on your bedside table, seeing that you had an hour before the great hall opened. With a fast movement you threw off the duvet from your body before sitting up, dangling your feet over the edge.

“I’m going to take a shower-” you started as you placed down your feet on the cold floor and stood up.

“-and if you’re sleeping when I come back: I will jinx everything you own for waking me up.” you continued, squinting your eyes at her now smiling face. The girl gave you a wink and you shook your head with a sigh before fetching some essentials and walking to the bathroom. The warm water steamed as you stood still, letting it flow down your body. You looked down at your hands. Remembering. You smiled, knowing that you definitely weren’t imagining things anymore. The cloaked wizard had most definitely never willingly been that close to a student before. The relationship the two of you had weren’t the usual one shared between teacher and student. It was something more. Or at least had the potential of being. You washed your hair hand body slower than usual, since you had more than enough time, before stepping out of the shower. After drying yourself off with a towel you put on your underwear and bathrobe. Your wet hair dripped on the bathroom floor as you bent forward- collecting it all into the towel before twisting and throwing it back as you stood up. You walked out the bathroom, seeing Millie now sitting on top of her own bed. She had changed into her uniform, but her hair was still slightly messy. The two other girls you shared your dorm with sat both with a mirror in hand, trying to make themselves look more awake than they felt. You gave them them a small smile as you greeted them good morning when you walked by. Millie grabbed her hairbrush and tried to brush through her bedhead to the best of her abilities. Unfortunately for her, but to your amusement, her hair were not in the mood to comply. You looked at the struggling girl as you got dressed and tried to dry your hair. The two other girls left the dorm, and you looked at the clock again. The great hall would open in about 15 minutes, giving you enough time to make yourself look less like a drained ghost. Millie sighed before giving up brushing her hair, annoyingly putting away the brush. You looked at her with a raised eyebrow and smile as you walked past her back to the bathroom.

“You look fine, Millie.” you smiled at her and she pouted her mouth with annoyance as she started to follow you. The girl sat down heavily on top of the toilet lid, watching as you made yourself ready for the day. When you were finished Millie stood up and left the bathroom before you even had managed to turn around. You raised an eyebrow at Millies behaviour, she usually wasn’t in such a rush to get to the great hall.

”Are you coming?” The girl called from the other room, seemingly almost halfway through the door. You walked out the bathroom, seeing Millie leaning on the door as she waited for you with a slightly stressed expression on her face.

”What got into you?” You asked as Millie opened the door.

”Just hungry.” She answered quickly. Maybe too quickly. You followed the girl through the door and hallways up to the great hall. Leo hadn’t arrived yet, but Millie had no trouble finding a place to sit. Millie had chosen a place right next to some seventh years who you couldn’t recall the names of, and you couldn’t recall seeing Millie ever talking to them either. You glanced up at the teachers table as you walked over to the slytherin table, sighing as you saw that there were no Severus. You didn’t really blame him for not wanting to go to breakfast this early, you yourself had done a lot of things for another hour of sleep. Millie sat with her head resting in her palms, slightly leaning in towards the seventh years as she desperately tried to join their conversation. The older boys laughed, some giving Millie attention, but most of them were oblivious of her presence. You sat down beside your friend, hearing how she made one of the fakest and girliest laughs you had ever heard. The boy next to Millie gave her a nudge with his elbow, leaned forward so that he could see you before nodding your way.

“She a friend of yours?” he asked, making Millie look between the two of you with surprise, but not with as much surprise as you looked at the boy with.

“Eh, yeah, this is Y/N. Y/N, this is Gabe.” she said as she leaned slightly back, introducing you to each other and giving you space to see the other person’s face properly. The boy, Gabe, reached out his hand towards you with a friendly smile, forcing you to shake it and try to give him a just as friendly smile back.

“You’re that girl that knocked out Pansy Parksinson, right?” he said with a grin as he let go of your hand.

“I am.” you answered, looking down at the table as you started to grab some of the food. You were proud over what you had done that day, but that people recognized you by that action only felt quite embarrassing since it had ended in Severus grabbing your arm and Dumbledore sending you to his office. The slytherin boy were quiet for moment after you answered, and created a silence which were too long to be pleasant. Eventually he broke it with a small giggle.

“Some of us are throwing a... surprise party, I guess you could call it, tonight. You two wanna come?” he asked more quietly than he had spoken before. You had barely any time to react before Millie answered for you.

“Sure, we’ll come.” she said with forced calmness, but you could tell that she could barely contain herself from jumping up and down.

“Great, I’ll meet you in the common room around midnight.” he smiled before standing up.

“Oh, and, well, keep it quiet.” he said with a wink before leaving the table. Some of the other seventh years joined him, making several of the seats around you empty. Millie looked at you in excitement, smiling like a maniac.

“Do you realise what just happened?” she asked.

“We got invited to a party?” you said, squinting your eyes slightly.

“Not just A party. THE party.” she said, somehow screaming at the same time as she whispered. Millie grabbed your face with both of her hands before leaning closer and stopping first as your noses touched.

“THE party.” she whispered as she starred you right in the eyes. You had absolutely no idea what was going on.


	26. Farrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO. New chapter!! I have a request for you guys though. Could you write your reactions in the comments as you read from now on? Like, every reaction. Your every thought. It could be several comments, no need to squeeze everything in in one comment if you don't want to. I think that would be hilarious to read hahahah, so please do that if you feel like it <333
> 
> Anyhow,  
> ENJOY

You had gone through most of the day feeling quite confused. Millie had tried her best to explain to you that this party that were taking place tonight were going to be the party of the year. Apparently she had heard Slytherin seventh years whispering about it for weeks, and from what she had picked up, getting invited and attending meant you had a golden opportunity to socialise with the “top of the top” as she called it, and therefore make friends with people that were probably going to be able to help you to a better future. Millie had made a compelling case on the event’s importance, but you were still a bit sceptical. Gabe had said that it was a surprise party, but for who you had no idea. He could easily just had said that it was just a party, but instead he had hesitated slightly before calling it a “surprise party”. You had asked Millie, but the girl had just shrugged her shoulders, seemingly not caring much about what he had called it but only about the fact that she had been invited. You, however, had a feeling something was off, and you couldn’t shake the feeling no matter how much you tried. As you walked to the second to last class of the day, potions, you walked in an unusually fast speed. Severus had placed himself closest to the Gryffindor table during lunch, making it impossible for you who sat with your back towards the other tables to look at him without being painfully obvious. You arrived at the classroom a few minutes before the class were set to start. To no surprise, the hall outside were completely empty, as were the classroom. People rarely showed up to potions earlier than they needed to, which you felt were quite a shame. You leaned backwards against the dungeon wall by the door as you waited for Hannah, still thinking about what could be off with the party tonight. Several things had popped up in your mind, the other more horrific and unpleasant than the other. You were probably just paranoid, but you could never be careful enough. Not when it came to parties thrown by seventh years.

”Y/N!” Called a voice, jerking you out of your thoughts and making you look up. It was Hannah.

”You’re here early.” Said the hufflepuff girl as she came closer.

”Yeah, I apparently walk faster than I thought.” You answered, making the girl look at you with a smug smile.

”Wonder why.” she said with a wink before more students started to show up, walking past you into the classroom. You squinted your eyes at Hannah before pushing off the wall and walking inside, making Hannah giggle slightly. Since Hannah knew about your crush on Snape, her comment hadn’t been entirely unexpected. She didn’t know anything more than that, though, and you had to remind yourself to not let anything slip out that could tip her of that the relationship between you and the potions master had evolved, now into first name basis. It took all of your strength, but you managed to suppress the blush that tried to force itself on your face from the reminder. After you and Hannah had sat down in your seats it didn’t take more than a minute before the professor showed up. The wizard walked into the classroom with the same elegance as always, cloak flowing gracefully after him. _Breathe in, breathe out_. Severus turned around when he reached the front of the classroom and glanced over the students sitting before him. His dark eyes barely swept over you before settling on a Gryffindor girl on the row in front of you. The wizard tilted his head slightly, not taking his eyes of the girl, before speaking to her.

”Miss Farrow.” He said as he squinted his eyes, causing the girl to take a visibly deep breath.

”Y-yes, sir?” The girl answered, voice shaking. You rolled your eyes.

”How is your brother?” Snape asked, making you raise an eyebrow. The man had asked the question with a surprising lack of his usual coldness, which resulted in several surprised expressions around the room. Your face had also changed expression, but you were equally confused as surprised.

”Great. He will come back this evening, actually.” The Gryffindor girl said, lighting up slightly as she spoke of her brother.

”Yes. How… delightful. ” Severus said, attempting a slight smile which caused the girl to look down at the desk before her. You looked over at Hannah, asking her with your eyes to explain what they were talking about.

”Her brother almost blew himself up a few weeks ago. Had to be transferred to St Mungo’s.” Hannah whispered and you remembered how you had heard Leo talking about something similar at breakfast one time.

”The Slytherin guy?” You asked back in a whisper. Hannah nodded, confirming it was the same as the one Leo had talked about. Severus eventually started the class, going through the importance of letting potions turn in colour before adding an ingredient if the instructions demands so while often looking down at the Farrow girl, letting the rest of the students in the classroom know that her brother had most likely not followed this particular instruction. When class ended you watched the Gryffindor girl stand up and give Severus a shy smile before starting to walk out the classroom. You could clearly see that the girl’s cheeks were a couple of shades pinker than usual, making you feel strangely annoyed. The Farrow girl were just about to take the step to leave the room, but were stopped by the cloaked man’s voice.

“Farrow.” he said and the girl turned. The potions master made a gesture for her to come closer to him and she more than happily obeyed. If looks could kill, the girl had in this moment fallen dead to the floor. You felt a tingling warmth spreading through your body, and not the good kind of warmth. Your pulse increased its speed, pumping adrenaline through you as your breathing got heavier.

”Hey.” Hannah said, giving you a light punch on the arm.

”You look like you are about to murder someone.” She continued with slight worry, but mostly with amusement. You noticed that you had notably clenched your jaw while looking at the girl, and you tried your best to relax your face and body by taking some deep breaths.

“Tell your brother to come see me as soon as possible.” you heard Severus tell the gryffindor.

”Jealous?” Hannah winked with a quiet voice as she gathered her things and picked them up.

“Ofcourse, professor.” the girl answered, and you could practically hear her big smile.

”No.” You stated, and you had for once not told a complete lie. Having the professor give you attention were obviously something you wanted, but the way he gave that girl attention were not from a place of fondness but rather from a place of duty, and that was not what you wanted. As the head of Slytherin house it was his job to keep track of his students, and if that required him asking a gryffindor girl a seemingly caring question and giving her a little attention, so be it. Your… _anger_ wasn’t because of him talking to her, it was because of her flattered behaviour. You picked up your things, seeing the professor dismissing the girl and glancing over at you, but you were too focused on trying to calm yourself down to even react at his eyes on you. The girl walked slowly out of the classroom and you could see how she almost bounced as she walked with a unnecessary big smile on her face which definitely didn’t help making you less irritated. Hannah and yourself followed the gryffindor girl’s lead towards the door as the three of you now had become the only ones left in the classroom beside the professor, but you had barely taken two steps before the voice this time was directed towards you.

“Y/L/N. A word.” The cloaked man said, making all of you stop. Hannah turned her head and gave you a fast wink before continuing to walk out the classroom. The gryffindor girl, however, hesitated slightly, seemingly wanting to stay and hear what the professor wanted to discuss with you. Despite her wishes, she was eventually forced to continue out of the room when Hannah reached her and the door. The Farrow girl glanced back at you as she walked out and you couldn’t help yourself. You gave the girl a wink, just like the ones Hannah usually gave you, and the girl’s face almost turned in horror. Severus waved his hand, making the door shut and breaking your eye contact with the girl. You took a deep breath, feeling quite good about yourself until you remembered that you now were alone with the professor in a closed room.


	27. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I back? I sure as hell hope so
> 
> Thank you for all the kudos and nice comments!! And a HUGHE thank you to everyone who has dm:d me on instagram with more love than I ever thought possible. Snape lovers are genuinely the best people??
> 
> Anyhow, here is a new chapter, with something that has been requested several times, and I hope I did him justice.
> 
> ENJOY

”Congratulations on managing to control yourself. We do not want yet another student sent to the hospital wing by your doing, do we?” The wizard said, breaking the silence in the room. You guessed that Hannah hadn’t been the only one that had noticed your feelings towards the Farrow girl.

”Pansy had it coming.” You defended yourself as you turned to look at him, knowing that he was referring to the incident in the great hall. The man didn’t argue, instead showing a small but definitely much more genuine smile than the one he had given the Farrow girl, probably agreeing with your words. 

“The Farrow girl is harmless.” The cloaked wizard eventually said and you couldn’t tell if he meant harmless as in “bad at magic” or harmless as in… “no competition”, so to speak.

“Gryffindors are never harmless.” you stated firmly, almost surprising yourself with how hard the words had come out. The man looked at you, now with a slight frown.

“I am aware. You’re dismissed.” He said, giving you a nod before turning away. You sighed at yourself, the comment had not come across as intended in your head. The atmosphere between the two of you had turned for the worse, and you wondered if you would ever manage to keep a normal, jaw clench free, conversation with the professor. You hesitated over what to do. Leave, like he had basically instructed you to do with the use of “dismissed”, or stay, because you could do better than two sentences, and you wouldn’t mind having a reason to be late for transfiguration. You decided in favour of the latter. With slight nervosity but a lot of determination, you started walking up to him, dumping your things on the nearest table as you passed. The man had started to go though some books, seemingly ignoring you to the best of his abilities. The wizard’s jaw was clenched as you came closer and he didn’t show any sign of wanting to keep a conversation going, but you knew you two had come further than this, and you wouldn’t let yourself be scared off so easily. You dragged out a chair and sat down, only a few feet away from him, before starting to look around the classroom on everything but him, buying yourself time to come up with something to talk about. The man continued what he was doing for a few seconds before you could hear his breathing showing signs of annoyance. Eventually he placed his hands on the table and turned his head to look at you.

“Do you not understand the definition of dismissed or is there a problem, miss Y/L/N?” He said, and you could hear how he took deep breaths to keep himself composed. You turned your head towards the man, seeing him raise his eyebrows as he waited for your answer. 

“Now that you mention it, yes, there is a problem,  _ Professor Snape _ .” you said, making sure to drag out his title and last name as much as you possibly could as you spoke, making it sound just as strange as you wanted it to. The man’s right eye twitched slightly as he heard his formal name come out your mouth, and you were sure he got your point. The room fell silent for a while, Severus had looked back at the books in front of him without giving you a response and you were again disappointed that you somehow never managed to keep the conversation going. Sure he could try harder if he wanted to, but you knew that the both of you were stopped to a massive degree by the knowledge of being forced to keep your relationship on a level that would not jeopardize his position as a Hogwarts professor or yours as a student.

“Don’t you have a class to attend, Y/N?” The professor said, janking you out of thought. You looked up at the man with a small smile when you heard your name, he hadn’t taken his eyes from the books, but he had continued the conversation in a.. school friendly way.

“Transfiguration. But I prefer it here.” you said, resting your chin on your crossed arms that you placed on the table, watching as the man browsed through the books. 

***

Severus glanced over at the girl beside him. She was observing his fingers as they moved the pages back and forth with her head peacefully resting on her arms. He had heard her words, but he didn’t know what to make of them. And worse: he didn’t know what to respond. Of course there was the logical answer, order her to go to her class, a response that was expected of him. Or the illogical answer, to give her permission to stay, since she had expressed that it was her wish to do so. If it was a wish founded in a want to be in his presence, or simply to get out of having to go and listen to Minerva, he didn’t know. He doubted it was the classroom that attracted her, since there were far more comfortable places to be. The cloaked man wouldn’t blame her if it were the latter, he hadn’t found transfiguration the most rewarding subject either as a student, however, he was… aware of the girl’s feelings towards him, and therefore the most probable cause for the wish was not mainly to skip class. Severus sighed, somehow this girl had made his life so much more complicated that it already was. He knew what he should answer her, but he was not sure that he himself wanted to give her that answer. He rarely let his own feelings go out over his decisions as a professor, he had a role to play, and he planned on playing that role as flawless as possible, but somehow she saw right through that. She could tell when the exterior didn’t match the inside, and that changed everything. The girl couldn’t be scared away, he had tried, but she was resilient. It had become clearer and clearer that no matter how much he wanted to believe he was dealing with a simple case of a student having a crush him, much like the Farrow girl, this situation was far from simple. Yesterday had proved that. It had not only confirmed that the feelings from the girl were true, but it had made it impossible for him to ignore his own feelings. As suspected, the amortentia he had brewed hadn’t changed much for the girl, he had been standing right next to her as she smelled the potion, making the potion smell exactly like her surroundings already did. He did however find it unusual that it hadn’t smelled like anything more to her, amortentia rarely smelled like only one thing. The real surprise had come when the girl left. The smell in the room had stayed the same. Even for him. He had as soon the potion was finished sensed the scent of lilies, as he always did in the presence of amortentia, but as the girl left he could still smell her hair. The girl’s scent was too obvious to be ignored, smelling the amortentia had been like burying his face in her neck, and it terrified him. He wasn’t sure how he had let his feelings spiral like this, how he had lost control without noticing. The man took a breath, he knew what he wanted, but acting irrationally would only cause more harm than good.

“Five minutes.” Severus started. He knew he was pushing boundaries.

“After that I expect you to attend Minerva’s class and excel.” He continued with a hard voice and stern eyes at the student beside him. The girl looked up at him with raised eyebrows and surprise before her face changed to joy. A big smile spread on her lips, forcing Severus to look away. It had been a long time since a smile had made his heart skip a beat, and even though the feeling of love was supposed to be something wonderful, Severus couldn’t help but feel guilt. Guilt over straying away from his first true love, the one that had given him a meaning in life, the one person that had been kind to him from the start. Lily. 

“So… what are you doing?” the girl asked shyly, making Severus focus his attention back to her. Her cheeks were a light shade of pink, a quite adorable thing that had a tendency of happening whenever the two of them talked.

“Reading.” he answered, making her roll her eyes. If he was honest, he hadn’t read a single sentence, only flipping through the pages while trying to figure out what to do and say next. 

***


	28. Notebook

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY GUYS, GUESS WHAT: A NEW CHAPTERRRR
> 
> Felt bad for being so damn slow and leaving you guys for months with nothing... SO... I made this little thing for you as well as a new chapter:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ8efJcm7EQ
> 
> I'm so awkward, but I tried
> 
> ANYWAY ENJOY THE CHAPTER AND HOPEFULLY THE VIDEO

“I can see that. I meant more specifically.” you said with a sigh, feeling slightly discouraged. The wizard looked at you for a few seconds before closing one of the books in front of him and handing it to you.

“I suggest you read this.” The cloaked man said, and you raised your eyebrows in surprise before taking the book from the professor’s hands.

“I believe it could benefit your grade. Considerably.” He continued, finishing with a sigh as he, probably, thought about your test scores. You looked down at the cover of the book, expecting to be met with an intricate design with one or two cauldrons and a title containing the word “potions”, but no, it was entirely blank. No title or anything, only black. 

“Thank you, I’ll…”  you started as you opened the book, scanning the pages with your eyes to figure out what he had actually handed to you. The book was no textbook, but a notebook, and you knew this handwriting. You recognised names of several potions, but the ingredient lists and the instructions for all of them were… off. They were largely like the versions you knew from your textbooks, but there were several differences, from the order ingredients were put in to how to handle them and the colour of the potion during the process. In some places you could even see new effects the potions had that the versions you knew about definitely didn’t have.  

“Is this… your notes?” you asked, looking up at the man. It was clearly his handwriting, and you couldn’t say anyone else that were invested in potions enough to even come up with all of this- let alone tell Severus about it so that he could write it down. This was his own findings. The wizard glanced over at you for a second before turning his eyes down at the book in your hands.

“As said, I believe reading that could benefit your grade.” he said casually in his usual cold voice, like this was just like any other conversation.

“Are you sure I’m even allowed to? Wouldn’t this be considered cheating?” the man looked up at you, raising an eyebrow but staying quiet, waiting for you to think through what you had just said. 

“Oh. Right.” you said quietly as you realised that the only one that could bust you for cheating in potions was the same person who had given you the notebook to begin with. Severus shook his head slightly before looking away. You looked down at the notebook in your hands again, flipping through some of the pages. So far you had only seen potions you had been taught in class, but after you had flipped through another few pages you started to see names of potions you had never heard about before. You read their description, thinking you could read about them in more detail later. You flipped another page, seeing a quite adorable and unusually impressive sketch of a heart-shaped bottle under the label “Amortentia”. You started reading the description, smirking a little as you read the words “love potion” in Severus handwriting. Somehow you couldn’t see Severus ever brewi- … hold on. You re-read the sentence your eyes had just glided over, and as you connected the dots you slammed the book shut and stood up. Without a look on the professor you grabbed your things and half-ran to the door.

“I’m late.” you said over your shoulder as you almost jumped out the door and then shut it behind you. You continued in a fast pace down the dungeon halls until you reached the common room, where you slowed down just enough to not hit yourself on the corner to the entrance as you slurred out the password and walked inside. The common room was empty, so you continued, now running, to your dorm. Your roommates were all in class, giving you the chance to drop all of your books where you stood before gliding down to the ground with your back against the door. You were in disbelief, but the facts were clear. The potion Severus had made you help him with yesterday had been amortentia. The love potion. THE LOVE POTION. You rested your head between your knees, feeling slightly nauseous from the explosion of feelings. You were no way near certain of the proper way to react. Some parts of you felt ecstatic, but somehow you mostly felt… betrayed? He had asked you what you had smelled, and now that you knew the meaning behind the smell, your stomach turned. It had smelled like him. And he knew that. He knew because he had tricked you into telling him, and that rubbed you the wrong way. You took a deep breath before gathering your books back up and standing up on slightly wobbly legs. You knew you couldn’t stay here much longer if you didn’t want points taken away from your house, so you left the books you didn’t need on your bed and grabbed your transfiguration textbook before heading out again, now towards your transfiguration classroom. After a few minutes you walked through the door into the classroom, being met with judging looks from everyone in the class, including McGonagall.

“Class started 10 minutes ago, Miss Y/L/N.” Professor McGonagall frowned.

“I’m sorry for being late, Professor. Professor Snape wanted to talk to me after class.” You said, looking down at the ground, trying to keep yourself as calm as possible to not give the other students too much to gossip about. It was enough that they now thought he had scolded you, because what else would Severus Snape talk to a student about for that long after class?- they did absolutely not need to know that you were upset because you found out that he had tricked you into confessing your love for him by brewing a potion in your presence that he would never otherwise brew, or that you had found all of this out because he gave you his own personal notebook about potions so that you could improve your grades. You sighed just thinking about it. This situation was a mess. McGonagall looked at you for a few seconds before also sighing.

“Very well, take a seat.” she said and nodded to your usual seat. You looked up and gave her a thankful smile before walking over to Leo and sitting down beside him. 

“Trouble in paradise?” Leo whispered with a grin, leaning closer. He was obviously joking, you knew that, so you forced yourself to answer him with the best knowing smile you could manage. McGonagall continued with the class and you sighed out with relief as all the eyes turned back to the front of the classroom and leaving you alone. For now. Luckily, you managed to go through the entire class without dragging any more attention to yourself. As McGonagall ended the class and you managed to get out the door, Leo placed his arm around your shoulders.

“So... I heard you and Millie were about to go to a party tonight without me.” he said clearly but also quietly enough so that no one around you heard his words. Shit, you had forgot about that.

“Who told you that?” you asked, looking up at him. You were worried he would be hurt that you didn’t tell him about the so called “surprise party” you and Millie had been invited to by Gabe, but he didn’t look mad, and he hadn’t sounded upset either, making you slightly suspicious. This was just the thing Leo would be upset about.

“Gabe.” Leo laughed.

“How did you think Millie got in contact with him in the first place? She isn’t really… a magnet for strangers.” he said, raising one of his eyebrows, making you chuckle. No, she really wasn’t a magnet for strangers, but neither were you. Actually, the only one out of the three of you that were good with new people were Leo.

“So you’re also invited?” you asked him as you continued walking down the hall.

“Yeah, Gabe told me about it last week.” he said, shrugging his shoulders a little.

“Last week? So  _ you’re _ the one who didn’t tell  _ us _ .” you said, looking at him with squinted eyes.

“Well, I mentioned it to Millie. Couldn’t pass up on a chance to see her trying to charm her way to an invitation.” Leo laughed. You shook your head but let a smile show, you felt a little bad for Millie, but you saw the comedy of her being glued up to Gabriel. You walked down the stairs and through the dungeons while looking over the notes Leo had written down during the 10 minutes you had missed, Leo still having his arm hanging loosely around your shoulders. Suddenly, Leo stopped walking, making you stop too.

“Look at me.” Leo said, sounding unusually serious. You did as he said and looked up at him, wondering what for. Without any hesitation, he bent down and gave you a kiss right on the lips.   
  



End file.
